Talk:Thousand Islands Bridge

What did this connect to in Ontario before the Thousand Islands Parkway was built?

[1] shows a connection to old Highway 2, which doesn't make sense. Did it just connect to the unpaved Shelton Road/Old River Road, or was traffic routed along Reynolds Road or Blue Mountain Road? --NE2 01:53, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

It looks like "1938: The Thousand Islands Bridge to the USA is opened by President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King."[2] while, for the parkway (then numbered 2S for 'scenic') "By the end of 1938, about 75% of the dual roadways were graded. This work included an entrance road leading to the new Thousand Islands & Ivy Lea Bridge, which opened to traffic on August 18, 1938."[3]

This leaves a Parkway largely unusable west of Mallorytown until 1940-41, but planned so that enough is completed in time to connect to the bridge itself.

The only obvious way from the bridge to Highway 2 (which in Lansdowne village is well north of the current 401 routing) would be to take Reynolds Road northbound from the "North of the Border" store (Reynolds & 1000 Islands Parkway). While Reynolds and 137/I-81 are nominally 2km apart now at the 401 (exits 659, 661 respectively) they converge and at the Parkway waterfront level they are almost adjacent, leaving Reynolds as the obvious "old bridge road". It was gravel at the time (as were huge chunks of other key roads, like Hwy 7) but it was usable. 137 never did reach Highway 2, it is a stub to connect to 401 and it currently ends there.

There is a street named "Old Bridge Road" on the US side (Wellesley), but it's parallel to and directly east of the current I-81 (South of the Border restaurant, post office, lumberyard are on this numbered Jefferson county road). The US mainland connection would likely have been to NY 12 as there was no Interstate at the time. 66.102.83.61 (talk) 04:33, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Added Map

I added a map so the reqmap tag was deleted. Ilikepie2221 (talk) 03:14, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Nice image

Nice image! - Denimadept (talk) 04:26, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Definition Not Clear

Text under photo: "A view of the Canadian side of the bridge system from an observation tower just before the border crossing."

The picture shows the entire bridge, so which side is "the Canadian side"? Do you mean a view *from* the Canadian side of the bridge (looking south into America?) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.18.234.81 (talk) 03:14, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

This link isn't a single bridge but a series of bridges. The Canadian span runs from the mainland (north-shore, near Lansdowne, Ontario) across at least two small islands to land on Hill Island, Ontario. A rather trivial concrete stub of a bridge joins Hill Island, Ontario to Wellesley Island, New York across a very short gap. One long, continuous American span then joins Wellesley Island, New York to the south shore at Fisher's Landing, New York.

The observation tower is on the east side of the highway, on Hill Island (ON). The view in the photo is looking north, from Hill Island to the Canadian mainland, and therefore includes just the Canadian span - not the others. From this vantage point and direction, both sets of Customs houses, the international boundary marker, Wellesley Island, I-81 and the long, continuous US span of the bridge (Wellesley Island-Fishers Landing) are behind the viewer and not visible. Everything shown in this one image is in Ontario, Canada.

Hill Island is at least a mile or two across with a motel, currency exchange and tourist observation tower (there were some factory-outlet stores, not sure if they're still there), Wellesley Island likely closer to four miles across with a village (Fineview NY 13640), lumberyard, post office, state park and petrol stations. There was a second post office on Wellesley (Thousand Islands Park NY) but it may have either already closed or be slated for closure (as of 2012) as USPS is flat broke. I'd expect total population under 1000 for these islands.

The picture shows Hill Island, Ontario in foreground and Lansdowne/Rockport ON in background. It depicts the Canadian span... only. 66.102.83.61 (talk) 04:22, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Now in 2019 the image text reads A view of the Canadian side of the bridge system from an observation tower just before the border crossing. This is not at all clear.

Assuming the above discusses the same picture, I'll attempt a more clear description. CapnZapp (talk) 14:51, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Clarity

This article reads as if written by someone already intimately knowledgeable about the bridge system. As an outsider I couldn't understand what connects to what, and why there are five bridges.

Attempting a structural upgrade (to the text, not the bridges ;) CapnZapp (talk) 14:49, 12 February 2019 (UTC)