How Victorians crossed a river before there was a bridge: Part IV (Windup)

I try to limit my research to acquiring enough information to make a scene come alive, but the process always works its magic and I discover I have learned a whole lot more. While researching cable ferries I gained insight into why communities were so keen to have one. Bridge engineering might have advanced rapidly [...]

How Victorians crossed a river before there was a bridge: Part III

So, how did 19th century cable ferries work? I haven’t taken any engineering courses, but based on my research this is how I see them operating–
The simplest cable ferry was pulled back and forth across slow moving rivers where keeping a ferry under control wasn’t too difficult. A long cable was attached to one end [...]

How Victorians crossed a river before there was a bridge: Part II

“Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.”
– Thomas Stonewall Jackson
For the past week, I’ve devoted any spare time to browsing the collection of historical materials available online from the Glenbow Archives in Alberta. As a writer, I rely on archives as a source of accurate [...]

How Victorians crossed a river before a bridge was built: Part I

This morning I sat before the computer painting a word picture of my heroine riding a cantankerous mare named Maud across the dusty plains of Alberta to the Bow River at Calgary. She needed to get to the other side, but I knew there wasn’t a bridge across the river in 1883. How would she [...]