Few landmarks define a town the way the CPR Trestle defines Parry Sound. Completed in 1907 by the Canadian Pacific Railway, this steel railway bridge stretches 1,695 feet across the Seguin River valley at a height of 105 feet, making it the longest rail trestle east of the Rocky Mountains. The first scheduled train crossed in 1908, and more than a century later it still carries freight — today serving both Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National traffic.
The trestle is a monument to the railway age that built northern Ontario. Some 5,000 workers raised it under the direction of the Hamilton Bridge Company, forging the link that connected Toronto to Sudbury and opened the region to settlement, logging and tourism. In July 1914, Tom Thomson — the painter who inspired the Group of Seven — visited Parry Sound and captured the bridge in his oil painting Trestle at Parry Sound, cementing its place in Canadian art history.
You can see the trestle from almost everywhere downtown, and the drive down to the waterfront passes directly beneath it. For the best views, climb the Tower Hill lookout for a near bird’s-eye perspective, or walk the waterfront fitness trail and the Tower Hill Path. Sunrise and sunset are prime time for photography, when low light warms the steel and the Canadian Shield around it. Railway buffs, history lovers and photographers all find something here — it is Parry Sound’s skyline, and its story, in a single structure.