Fall 1997 on the Red River in Winnipeg

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21. 9. One of the older Winnipeg bridges, the Louise Bridge, spanning the autumn Red River.

15. 11. The freezing Red River just north of the Redwood Bridge.

15. 11. View of the freezing Red River from within the storm sewer outlet (No. R84) about a kilometer more to the north. (A month later I found at the mouth of this pipe of diameter larger than 2 m a pile of toilet paper caught behind a twig. It seems thus that not only the rain water but occasionally also the excess raw sewage flows through there directly into the river!)

19. 11. Because of the above-average temperature, the Red River remained open under the Winnipeg bridges until the end of December. This is another one of the older Winnipeg bridges, the Redwood Bridge, which apparently remembers the end of the era in which the Red River was the main traffic artery, along which the goods and people were moved, especially before the railway came to the city, from the south from Minnesota. It is a highway bridge now, but there are old rails hidden under its pavement as it has been revealed during its repair earlier this year. This bridge allowed the passage of big ships after its middle portion was rotated by 90o. The engine room that rotated the bridge is situated in that box high above the bridge pavement. The room was powered through the external wires supported by the pole sticking above the engine room. This pole had to be rotated at the same speed but in the opposite direction than the bridge itself to stabilize the wires. (There is another, long ago decommissioned, railway bridge of this type a few kilometers further north.)

My daughters Eva and Zuzana show how hot it was on Dec. 14. Although they covered their legs soon after I took the picture, they were walking sleeveless for more than another hour while the sun was high enough above the horizon.