Political Bridge

Just before 3 o'clock one frosty morning last week, Taximan Benoit Lefebvre, with two passengers in his cab, was wheeling briskly across the steel and concrete bridge over the frozen St. Maurice River between Three Rivers and Cap de la Madeleine. The bridge was the Pont Duplessis. Ever since 1946, when Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis awarded the $3,000,000 bridge contract without any public call for bids, it had been a political issue in the province. Duplessis' opponents said it was built with graft, loudly called attention to the cracks in its concrete. Duplessis confidently answered that it was as "strong and straight" as his Union Rationale government.

"Suddenly my car started to jump like a deer," said Taximan Lefebvre. "I saw a wave of snowy pavement roll toward me." The car appeared to strike the side of the bridge and then fell into space.

When Lefebvre and the others scrambled out of the half-submerged car, they realized what had happened. Three spans of the 2,020-ft. bridge had collapsed and crashed through the ice. Before traffic could be stopped, three more cars plunged over the edge of the broken bridge. Rescue workers slid a toboggan across the ice to help Lefebvre and his customers. But nothing could be done for the four people in the other cars. They were trapped and dead, 40 ft. down in the icy black river.

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