Four known bridges have spanned the narrows between the Inner Harbour and Upper Harbour of Victoria, British Columbia, connecting Johnson Street on the east shore with Esquimalt Road on the west shore. The current bridge is Canada's largest single-leaf bascule bridge. First bridge, 1855 - 1862 A low wagon bridge was completed in 1855, which blocked marine traffic. It was dismantled in 1862 and was replaced with a ferry service. Second bridge, 1888 - 1923 In 1888, a hand-operated swing bridge of limited load capacity was built for rail and foot traffic only. Third bridge, 1924-2018 Description The third Johnson Street Bridge was built as two adjacent, independent, heel trunnion bascule bridges, a three-lane road span of , and a single-track rail span of . The approaches were fixed steel girders; the east and the west . Counterweights were of hollow concrete weighing . Operating struts were moved by pinions powered by electric motors. History The Johnson Street Bridge was designed under the direction of Mr. F. M. Preston, City Engineer in 1920. The Strauss Bascule Bridge Company, which held the patents on the design, prepared the plans for the bascule spans and the operating machinery. The superstructure of the bridge was fabricated in Walkerville, Ontario of 100 tons of steel. The sub-structure was built by the City of Victoria Engineering Department and required of concrete. The bridge was completed at a cost of $918,000 (27 per cent higher than the estimated cost of $720,000) and opened in January 1924. The bridge originally had street car rails running down the center of the road span, but they were never used, and were removed a few years later. In 1966, the wood deck was replaced with steel grid, as rainwater absorbed by the deck unbalanced the bridge, straining the lifting gear. In 1979, extensive repairs were made to the superstructure, which had become severely corroded. Following these repairs, the bridge was painted blue. The paint was selected because the oxides of its pigment are the same colour as the paint so that little fading of the colour occurs. The City of Victoria had used the same blue paint for the lamp standards throughout the city. In 1995, abnormally high temperatures caused the steel decking to expand to the point the bridge would not open or close properly. This necessitated the removal of about of the decking. Daily traffic in 2010 was