Railway Bridge

Heading toward the Railway Bridge to the Quebec side of the Ottawa River at Mattawa. Notice a tugboat (centre) tied at tunnel that passes under the track for easy access to River . Boats were used to push log booms down the river . Log Booms were gathered on this downriver side of bridge in the bay created by the point of land that juts into the River . The whole bay was filled with logs with no space between . Pike men who ran on the logs orienting them for trip , sometimes slipped beneath the logs when one rolled . A sure death sentence . No way to escape drowning .   

A steam locomotive hauling passengers and freight to Temiscaming approaching the Bridge .This train would have gone through Snake Creek Siding ,Temiscaming , Tabarette , Fabre and to Ville Marie before the Dam .



The upstream side of RR Bridge from Explorer's Point beside the Mattawa River where it enters the Ottawa River. There is exposed shoreline which rarely was seen before the Dam at LaCave Rapids was built .Dry land under the railway bridge was extremely rare but is seen more often nowadays since the Dam is now run without people by a computer connection from the Chenaux Rapids Dam downriver closer to Ottawa . The foothill (Laurentian Mountains) across the River is the one that bears the three crosses at the summit . This picture was taken after the Dam 1952 but before 1962/3 (Diesel).


We can see how small the trees are in these photos taken in the late 50's . This is the regrowth of forests clear cut in 1880's .  The same amount of time has passed . The mountain is not covered in White Pine as it once was but a mixture of hard and softwoods growing on the thin pockets of soil on top of granite and gneiss .l