Royal Commission on the Quebec Bridge Inquiry (Canada) : The Royal Commission on the Quebec Bridge Inquiry was established under Order in Council P.C. 1974, 31 August 1907, under Part II of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., c.104, 1906) and on the recommendation of the Minister of Railways and Canals. The Commission was mandated to investigate and report into the cause of the collapse of the Quebec Bridge, and especially into several questions suggested by the Chief Engineer of the Department of Railways and Canals. The Commissioners were Henry Holgate, Chairman, John George Gale Kerry and John Galbraith.
On 12 April 1900 the Quebec Bridge Company awarded the contract for the erection of the approach spans of a bridge to be built over the St. Lawrence River, about six miles above Quebec City, to the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The bridge was designed to be the world's largest cantilever-type structure as of that time. It was to provide crossings for trains, street cars, motor vehicles and pedestrians. Construction on the bridge commenced in October 1900 when the cornerstone of the first pier was laid. However, P.L. Szlapka, the designing engineer for the Phoenix Bridge Company, did not complete the final blueprints for the bridge until the spring of 1905.
Uneasiness over Szlapka's design developed when the consulting engineer for the Quebec Bridge Company, Theodore Cooper of New York, discovered that the weight of the two arms of each cantilever were about eight million pounds more than had been estimated. Since work on the first span, situated on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, was already well under way, Cooper decided not to reject Szlapka's design and allowed the work to proceed as projected.
In June 1907, Norman McLure, inspecting engineer at the bridge site, discovered that two girders of the anchor arm of the span were a quarter of an inch out of alignment. In fact, several other girders had been forced into place with hydraulic jacks but these two girders were so placed that jacks could not be used. By early August, McLure reported to Cooper in New York that the two girders were even further out of alignment and appeared slightly bent. Cooper was disturbed by these reports and wanted fuller details. By 27 August, the situation became more alarming when the girders spread two whole inches further apart and were unmistakably bent. On 28 August, McLure went to New York to inform Cooper about the situation.
On 29 August, Cooper telegraphed John Deans, chief engineer for the Phoenix Bridge Company, in Phoenixville: "Add no more load to the bridge till after due consideration of the facts,". Deans, however, did not relay the message to Quebec City because McLure had told him that no more weight would be added to the girders until the traveller (a working platform of metal scaffolding) was taken down. Unknown to McLure, work on the project had continued after he had left for United States. As a matter of fact, the traveller was still in place and more steel was being added to the end of the cantilever span.
On 29 August 1907, at 5:32 p.m., the defective cantilever arms collapsed and 75 of the 86 men who were working on the structure were killed. There was also heavy loss due to property damage.
The federal Royal Commission that investigated the accident reported that the collapse of the span of the bridge resulted from the failure of the lower chords in the anchor arm, near the main pier, which was caused by their defective design. They attributed this to errors in judgement by P.L. Szlapka, the designing engineer of the Phoenix Bridge Company, and Theodore Cooper, consulting engineer of the Quebec Bridge and Railway Company (see James Bannerman, "The Black Day the Quebec Bridge Fell", Maclean's Magazine, 13 October 1956).
Hearings of the Commission were held in Quebec City, Ottawa, New York, Philadelphia and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania from 9 September to 22 November 1907 and a visit was made to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. During the period from 28 November 1907 to 23 January 1908, the Commissioners again visited Quebec City, New York and Phoenixville. RG33-6 General Inventory
