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<\/p>\nThe Low Level Bridge has been a part of Edmonton\u2019s skyline for 126 years, but something very different might be in its place today had it not been for some quick thinking many years ago.<\/p>\n
In June 1915, rapid snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains combined with days of heavy rain sent a massive surge of water racing toward Edmonton.<\/p>\n
Notable Walterdale resident John Walter got the first warning by phone call at 2 a.m. on June 27.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy God, Edmonton, look out; the river is up 20 feet and still jumping!\u201d cried the warning from Rocky Mountain House, the first notice that a massive flood was about to hit Edmonton.<\/p>\n
Over the next 24 hours, the North Saskatchewan River rose at an alarming pace.<\/p>\n
By 3:30 a.m. on June 28, it had already climbed 17 feet and was still rising by about a foot every hour. By 11 a.m., the city was ordering evacuations.<\/p>\n
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City of Edmonton Archives<\/p>\n
By noon, the Low Level Bridge was shut down, and by 10 p.m., the City Power Plant was underwater, cutting off electricity. Just an hour and a half later, the pumping plant was forced to close, leaving residents without drinking water.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
City of Edmonton Archives<\/p>\n
By midnight, debris in the river was piled higher than the bridge\u2019s railings.<\/p>\n
As homes and wreckage slammed into the structure, the Canadian Northern Railway made a last-ditch call to save it by loading freight cars filled with sand onto the bridge to weigh it down.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
City of Edmonton Archives<\/p>\n
It worked.<\/p>\n
At 3 a.m. on June 29, the river peaked at more than 45 feet above its normal level, marking the worst flood in Edmonton\u2019s recorded history.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
City of Edmonton Archives<\/p>\n
From there, the river level slowly began to fall. Parts of the City Power Plant re-fired by mid-morning, and power was fully restored that evening. The following day, the river had dropped by another 20 feet, and water service was restored to residents, though still murky.<\/p>\n
Just over a week after the flood, most residents were able to return home.<\/p>\n
No lives were lost, but the damage was extensive. Around 2,000 people were displaced, 50 buildings were destroyed, and more than 700 homes were submerged.<\/p>\n
If you want a sense of just how high the river reached, there are markers underneath the Walterdale Bridge today that show the height of the 1915 flood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Low Level Bridge has been a part of Edmonton\u2019s skyline for 126 years, but something very different…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-549289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}