The Peace Bridge: Buffalo and Fort Erie
Bird's eye view of the Peace Bridge, c. 1930's, the Parker Truss visible on
the American side at right as it crosses the Black Rock Canal. Note the electric
transmission tower at left along the Canadian side. Not clearly visible is the
matching tower on the American side. These still exist in 2005.
The idea of a bridge joining Canada and the
United States between Buffalo and Fort Erie was discussed as early as 1853.
Among
the insurmountable problems were the swift current of the Niagara River, the
enormous cost that would be involved, and the
fact that both Canadian and American laws had to be passed to permit the bridging
to occur.
Alonzo Mather, an American born in Fairfield,
NY, believed that a bridge should be built. He invested much of his fortune
from
the Union Stockyards Bank (Buffalo) in purchasing lands on the Canadian and
American shores, at the places where the Peace
bridge terminals now stand. But a NYS Senator, Thomas Platt, was so opposed
to this idea that he succeeded in having a
federal law passed that stipulated no international bridges could be built without
an act of Congress.
Bird's eye view from the Canadian side, c. 1930's.
By 1913, others had taken up the cause to
build a bridge for vehicular traffic between Buffalo and Fort Erie. World War
I
interrupted what quickly became a very popular clamor for a bridge, and in 1919
the American West Side Businessmen's
Association and the Canadian area businessmen started again to push for a bridge.
They succeeded in having the Buffalo and
Fort Erie Bridge Commission approved by the several legislatures. The agreement
that resulted was that private investors
would construct the bridge and recoup their investment through tolls until the
bonds were retired, and then the bridge would
become the property of the State of New York and the Dominion of Canada. Construction
began in 1925 and the "Peace
Bridge" was opened to the public June 1, 1927. Alonzo Mather died in 1941
and Mather Park on the Fort Erie side of the
Bridge (right side of bridge approach above) was named after him.
Peace Bridge 2005 view, with electrical transmission tower on Canadian side
visible at right.
The Peace Bridge suffered financially during
the Depression and appealed to state and federal legislative bodies for tax
relief.
Such relief was granted but to ensure its survival, a public benefit corporation,
or Authority, was created by New York State.
The federal laws further required that this be approved and, in 1934, President
Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation that
finalized the creation of the Buffalo & Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority.
In the mid-1960's, traffic on the Peace Bridge
had increased such that a discussion arose as to whether the Peace Bridge
capacity needed to be expanded and, if so, in what way. Here
is a brief essay from 1978 on the deliberations and their
outcome.
In 1999, after a 7-year study, the Buffalo
and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority determined to construct a "companion"
bridge adjacent to the Peace Bridge. Public passions were immediately engaged,
the City of Buffalo refused to grant
the necessary land easements, and the project was put on hold. Over the intervening
years, numerous groups have
worked to make the decision about the future of the Peace Bridge expansion a
public one and, by 2005, the expansion
of the Peace Bridge and how it will be accomplished has yet to be determined.
More information on the history of the Peace Bridge can be found on its website.