The Cantilever Bridge, Finished (end view) — Tunnel #36
BCA Photograph No. 75059
BCA Negative No. D-8716
Photo in Onderdonk Album, #1, p. 19. (BCA Accession No. 98401-6)

In its day, this bridge crossing the Fraser river was considered one of the great engineering marvels of British Columbia. The details of its design and construction were well documented. For instance, The Inland Sentinel informed its readers on August 24, 1882, (reprinting an item in the Columbian), that "Mr. Tomlinson, C.E., who has had charge of the preparation of the plans for the bridges on the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia, will leave tomorrow for New York en route for England. He will bring out with him from a firm near Newcastle on Tyne the material for a steel truss bridge of 309 foot span which is to be thrown across the Fraser River." On July 12, 1883, another item announced that "The ship Stormy Petrel [had] sailed from the Tyne, England, on the 18th of June for Victoria, with the Fraser River Steel Bridge, and [would] be due ... in November."

Preparations were soon in hand on the site where the bridge was to be erected, but not without problems. The Sentinel quoted on November 1, 1883, an item from the Globe of October 5, 1883:

"Major Corbett, formerly of Ottawa, who has been for some time employed on Onderdonk's contract in British Columbia, reports that owing to the blundering on the part of the contractor or engineer in charge the plans for the great iron bridge over the Fraser were found to be too far apart for the iron work. The span was so great that the piers had to be blown up and new ones commenced. This will delay the completion of the bridge for a considerable time."

By February of 1884, trains from Port Moody were bringing the steel up from Port Moody for the construction of the bridge. The track had then been laid up to the crossing. On April 10, 1884, The Inland Sentinel reported that it was expected the bridge would be completed in early May of that year.

Detailed descriptions of the bridge were printed in The Inland Sentinel on March 22, 1883, (reprinted from the Newcastle Chronicle of February 6) and Janaury 31, 1884, reprinted from The American Engineer.