Pierre Laporte Bridge
bridge crossing the Saint Lawrence River between Quebec City and Lévis, Quebec, Canada

The Pierre Laporte Bridge (French: Pont Pierre-Laporte) is the longest main span suspension bridge in Canada. It crosses the Saint Lawrence River approximately 200 metres (660 ft) west (upstream) of the Quebec Bridge between Quebec City and Lévis. It spans 1,041 metres (3,415 ft).
It was originally named the New Quebec Bridge (Nouveau pont de Québec) and was supposed to be called Pont Frontenac (Frontenac Bridge) until it was renamed in honour of Quebec Vice-Premier Pierre Laporte, who was kidnapped and murdered during the October Crisis of 1970 as construction of the bridge was nearing completion. The bridge was constructed for the Province of Quebec, Department of Roads in a joint venture with the private firm of Parsons Transportation Group.
It carries Autoroute 73 northbound from Autoroute 20, the Trans-Canada Highway, to Quebec City and Autoroute 40 and also northwards towards Saguenay.
“Pierre Laporte Bridge” enters the record as bridge crossing the Saint Lawrence River between Quebec City and Lévis, Quebec, Canada. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pierre, Laporte and Bridge can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q761692. VIAF identifies the subject as 315527759. The Library of Congress control number is sh93004793. Authority coordinates are 46.745, -71.291. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pierre Laporte Bridge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.