Lethbridge Viaduct Lookout (High Level Bridge)

The Lethbridge Viaduct Lookout is reached from the trails of Indian Battle Park, the City of Lethbridge park that fills the Oldman River bottom south of the bridge. By car, Tourism Lethbridge sends visitors west on 3 Avenue South and right onto Indian Battle Road towards the Helen Schuler Nature Centre; on foot, trails drop into the coulee from the Galt Museum. The lookout sits 150 m (490 ft) south of the deck, where two sets of steps meet on the coulee slope east of Indian Battle Road. Tourism Lethbridge describes metal stairs leading up to a dedicated viewing platform, and calls the lookout one of the best panoramic views in the city.

From the platform the deck runs across your whole field of view: the east abutment is 520 m (1,710 ft) away at a bearing of 70 degrees and the west end 1.14 km (0.71 mi) away at 274 degrees, so the bridge fills well over half of the horizon. A train stays in view for its entire crossing of the valley rather than for a few seconds.

The viaduct is private CPKC property and both ends are fenced with no-trespassing signs, so every view here is from public park land. The City of Lethbridge states that the bridge is still used every day by Canadian Pacific; there is no public timetable for freight, so bring patience. The paved trails below the lookout pass directly under the towers, and the Nature Centre notes that its Living Roof, on the north side, is a good place to hear the thunder of trains crossing overhead.

The Oldman River valley here is deep enough that the viaduct stands 95 m (312 ft) above the river on 33 braced steel towers. The slopes below the lookout are bare coulee grassland cut by dry side ravines, while the valley floor is cottonwood forest, picnic lawns and the replica of Fort Whoop-Up. From the platform the towers step down into the trees and back up the far side, with the river hidden behind the woodland to the west.

Parks Canada lists violent winds, dry soils and extreme temperatures among the conditions the builders had to overcome, and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering notes that the track was laid between the main girders rather than on top of them to shield trains from the wind. The Helen Schuler Nature Centre records a pair of ravens nesting on the girders every year since 1989, and lists Canada geese, red-tailed hawks, great horned owls and rock pigeons among the other birds that have nested on the structure.

The Canadian Pacific Railway built the Lethbridge Viaduct between 1907 and 1909 across the Oldman River valley. Parks Canada's plaque text describes it as more than 1,600 m (5,250 ft) long and 95 m (312 ft) high, the longest and highest steel structure of its kind in Canada, and credits it with greatly increasing the capacity of the Crowsnest Pass Route by allowing much longer trains and shorter transit times. The Government of Canada designated the Construction of the Lethbridge Viaduct a National Historic Event on 3 August 2005.

The viaduct was part of a new, straighter line built north of the Oldman River to replace the railway's original route out of Lethbridge, which crossed the river on a wooden trestle 894 m (2,933 ft) long and 20 m (66 ft) high. The new alignment cut the ruling grade from 1.2 percent to 0.4 percent and shortened the route by 5.26 mi (8.47 km).

The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering credits John Edward Schwitzer with the conceptual and substructure design and C. N. Monsarrat of Montreal with the final superstructure design; the Canadian Bridge Company of Walkerville, Ontario, fabricated and erected the steel. The deck is carried on 44 plate girder spans of 20.4 m (67 ft) and 22 plate girder spans of 30.1 m (98.8 ft) over 33 riveted steel towers. Tourism Lethbridge gives the finished length as 1,623.86 m (5,327 ft), the height as 96 m (314 ft) and the steel used as 11,200 tonnes, and notes that the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering has also recognized it as a National Historic Civil Engineering Site.

Parks Canada describes the Lethbridge Viaduct as the longest and highest steel structure of its kind in Canada, and it is still a working freight line more than a century after it opened. The public platform is 150 m (490 ft) from the deck and the park trails pass directly beneath the towers, so the full height of the structure is seen from below rather than from a distant rim. Ravens have nested on the girders every year since 1989, according to the Helen Schuler Nature Centre.