After the Honeymoon Bridge, or Falls View Bridge, near the cataracts collapsed into the gorge from the paralyzing crush of the ice bridge, there were a couple of immediate proposals for a new bridge.
And one interesting, if misguided, proposal was to eliminate tolls on a new bridge. The idea was (sort of similar to that of the Grand Island bridges) to eliminate all tolls after the construction was paid off.
But if history has taught us anything, it is that a governmental toll, fee or tax, unlike old soldiers, never seems to fade away.
The late city historian Edward T. Williams took up that subject in a 1938 article almost a year after the bridge collapsed.
He wrote, "For nearly a year the two cities of Niagara Falls, New York and Niagara Falls, Ontario, have felt the serious practical effects of the tragedy of the Falls View bridge."
Both sides began immediate plans for a replacement, as did bridge owner, the International Railway Company. (IRC).
Williams noted, "The construction of a new bridge at this point has become involved in international complications. The project is a football of politics and controversy."
It seems the collapsed bridge was owned by a private enterprise, the IRC. The company also owned the land containing the approaches to the bridge on both sides of the international border.
It then became a question of whether a private company should build and own a new bridge, or if the individual governments on each side of the border should cooperate to have a government-operated structure.
Williams added, "The sum of $1,830,000 would build a new bridge at Niagara Falls, an international passageway from which honeymooners and all Falls viewers could again have a close up of natureÕs greatest spectacle."
The bridge collapsed on Jan. 27, 1938, and drew thousands of curious visitors and photographers. The steel wreckage lay on the ice bridge until melting caused it to sink to the bottom of the river. Williams noted some wooden parts of the bridge floated into Lake Ontario, but the massive iron structure sank and presumably lies upon the rocky bottom at least 150 feet below the surface.
After the IRC announced plans to rebuild the bridge, Canadian Premier Mitchell Hepburn said a new bridge should be a government project with eventual elimination of all tolls. He gained U.S. support for this proposal and the public-versus-private controversy began.
With national government approval on both sides, New York state and Ontario each named four members to a new international bridge commission to build and operate a new international bridge.
The new commission began negotiations with the IRC in hopes of acquiring the land approaches for a new bridge. The matter was complicated, of course, because two different sovereign nations were involved.
The IRC took the matter to federal district court in Washington, D.C., and also petitioned Canadian Parliament.
The Mitchell proposal gained public support because of the plan to eliminate tolls. Williams wrote that "it goes without saying that everybody would like to cross a bridge without paying a fee." But he noted a similar no-toll proposal had been suggested for the Peace Bridge in Buffalo and the Grand Island bridges, but the toll was perpetuated.
Another consideration at that time, Williams pointed out, was the timetable for construction. The IRC said it could have a new bridge completed prior to opening of the WorldÕs Fair in New York City in 1939. The fair was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people.
Local tourist officials and merchants believed many of these travelers would pass through Niagara Falls and cross a new international bridge to spur the economy on both sides of the border.
Williams said, "Obviously a majority of these tourists will visit Niagara Falls. With almost certain improvement in business conditions the tourist traffic in 1939 will surpass by far the tourist traffic of 1938."
The matter was still in dispute in December 1938, but was expected to be resolved when Canadian Parliament met again in January 1939, and when the U.S. federal court ruled on the dispute on this side of the border.
Obviously, the government entities on both sides of the border won out over the IRC, and constructed the bridge.
However, as we all know, the tolls never disappeared.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 27 2012 |