We never stop talking about the third Lévis-Québec link in this election campaign. Yes, we should say Lévis-Québec for the reasons that we know.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
But let’s talk about our first link, the Quebec Bridge, an essential road and rail link, a historic monument that bears witness to the exploits of engineering at the turn of the 20th century.e century.
In 2017, I had the pleasure of staying in Scotland for a conference and a week of visits in the agri-food sector. On three occasions we have traveled out of Edinburgh to visit businesses in the countryside. Each time, a different guide offered us to admire their magnificent Forth Bridge1, “a cantilever bridge, the second longest in the world, after that of the city of Quebec, in Canada”, they systematically repeated. A national treasure for them. They never mentioned that their bridge was obsolete, that it would have to be replaced, that it was in danger of falling, or that the authorities were constantly bickering over its maintenance.
At the same time, could we imagine the French lowering the Eiffel Tower, built twenty years before our noble bridge, claiming that it won’t be around for very long?
During the summer, my son-in-law lived comfortably in a magnificent house in Switzerland, built in 1776.
On the other side of the Atlantic, we still drive on bridges built under the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. According to Wikipedia, the list is long2.
And we, Quebecers, we come across the Atlantic to admire these noble beauties integrated into everyday life!
Could we, one day, follow the example of Europe and other continents? Could we have the pride of preserving, maintaining, cherishing our heritage, our infrastructures, rather than putting an expiration date on them? Not only is this bridge a historical monument, but we need it! Frankly, when I see the attitude of too many of our leaders with respect to the Quebec Bridge and all of our built heritage, I feel bad for my society.