Suspended in Time

Rooted in history

The Brilliant Bridge has a history rooted in the struggles of local Doukhobor peoples who after leaving the Canadian Prairies in the early 1900s, ventured west to B.C.

"Shortly after the first purchase of land in B.C., at Grand Forks the Doukhobor lands were named "Valley of the Fruit" and at Waterloo, because the name had military connotations, the name was changed to "Brilliant" because of the "glitter of water" of the joining rivers," wrote Cyril Ozeroff in a 1976 anthropology paper.

By 1910 the Doukhobors had made about 12 miles of road in the area and had turned to the government to help construct a bridge at the Kootenay River.

Two years later, there were more than 5,000 Doukhobors settled in B.C. and the community had purchased 14,403 acres of land at Brilliant, Grand Forks, Glade and Pass Creek.

In 1913, Doukhobor settlements included Brilliant, Raspberry, Champion Creek, Glade, Shoreacres, Ootishenia, Pass Creek and Crescent Valley, Ozeroff stated.

Brilliant was considered the business centre. The construction of the bridge was needed to connect Brilliant with settlements in Ootischenia.

"The old Brilliant Bridge was built in 1913, and was described as a modern structure of steel and concrete. As many as 40 Doukhobors worked on the project, designed by J.R. Grant and under the supervision of A.M. Truesdale, both members of a Vancouver consulting firm. ... The bridge was built to join with 16-foot roadways cut through the solid rock of the adjoining mountains...," wrote William Rozinkin in 1966.

First-hand accounts of the construction state all the work was completed by hand with the limited help of a gasoline cement mixer and one donkey engine.

Starting in April, the construction was completed seven months later. By October the bridge was open to pedestrian traffic.

"The Doukhobor community has been a heavy player in the development of the whole region. In terms of the original infrastructure, there is very little left of that. The bridge is one of the last substantial historical structures symbolizing the pioneering work of the community," said Andrew Davidoff, BSBRG