The Pigeon Lake Floating Bridge
May 27, 2026
Site of the Former Pigeon Lake Floating Bridge as seen from Perdue's Shore
In the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, Peterborough County had three floating bridges—they were an economical way to span a waterway. In the era before hydraulic equipment, building a causeway would be a lot of manual labour! One of them crossed Pigeon Lake, linking Perdue’s Shore with Flood’s Landing—near the intersections of Perdue Road and Pigeon Lake Road to Edenderry Line and Boundary Line.
Jack Thurston recalled the experience of driving across the Pigeon lake Bridge: “On a rough day the water would be running right over it and it was basically just a 2×4 on the side to keep you on. If you had a heavy load on, the bridge would sink and if you stopped too long you would sink.” Occasionally, a car would slide off the bridge. As winter was approaching, the bridge was pulled along the shore to limit ice damage. Once the lakes froze, cars would drive on the ice.
Permanent bridges with causeways replaced the floating bridges at Gannon’s Narrows and Bridgenorth, but the Pigeon Lake bridge passed into history.
