A Lethbridge electric company made history by becoming the first to illuminate the one hundred year old High Level Bridge.
For most, it was reason to celebrate, but after a death-defying experience nearly seventy years ago, a Coaldale man says as far as he's concerned, the bridge could have been kept in the dark.
Frank Toth won't soon forget his first trip across the High Level Bridge as a young CP Rail employee, because it was almost his last.
Toth says, "Every time I look at it, I die another thousand times, because its very, very frightful, Imagine yourself knowingly a hundred feet above the ground, above the river and you can't walk over it, but I had to crawl over it."
At 3:00 am on a cold November morning, Frank Toth was convinced his life was going to be over as he followed orders to let the conductor know why the train had stopped.
"I was totally lost what to do so I start crawling on this side of possibly a foot long tie on the left hand side and I couldn't make it so I went back behind the wheels and started crawling behind the huge giant axels."
Toth's experience has left him with mixed feelings about bridge's centennial, as hundreds gathered in the coulees to celebrate its history, and witness a once in a lifetime event.
Just after 9:00 pm Del Allen finally flipped the breakers and eight minutes later, the bridge was fully lit, for the first time.
It was a proud moment for Del Allen of D.A. Electric. "I'm proud of where I live, I'm proud of southern Alberta, I'm proud to be a Canadian and I'm proud that I was able to accomplish this feat."
Police officers did their best to keep traffic moving but still in some parts of Lethbridge, traffic came to a near stand-still as people tried to catch a glimpse of the bridge.
The bridge was lit for nearly two hours. The estimated cost to light it is $132,000.
