| Official Name: | Spences Bridge |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada British Columbia#Canada |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Spences Bridge |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | British Columbia |
| Subdivision Type2: | Regional district |
| Subdivision Name2: | Thompson-Nicola |
| Area Footnotes: | (2021) |
| Area Land Km2: | 0.74 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Total: | 76 |
| Population Density Km2: | 102.2 |
| Timezone: | PST |
| Utc Offset: | −08:00 |
| Timezone Dst: | PDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −07:00 |
| Coordinates: | 50.4167°N -142°W |
| Elevation Footnotes: | [1] |
| Elevation M: | 228 |
Spences Bridge is a community in the Canadian province of British Columbia, situated north east of Lytton and south of Ashcroft. At Spences Bridge the Trans-Canada Highway crosses the Thompson River. In 1892, Spences Bridge's population included 32 people of European ancestry and 130 First Nations people. There were five general stores, three hotels, one Church of England and one school. The principal industries are fruit growing and farming.[2] The population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 76, a decrease of 23.2 per cent from the 2016 count of 99.[3]
The Kettle Valley Railway included a spur line stretching from Merritt to Spences Bridge. The rail bed is still intact, along with the original bridges.
This settlement was originally known as Cook's Ferry because from 1862 to 1866 Mortimer Cook operated a ferry for crossing the river. The ferry was replaced by a toll bridge built by Thomas Spence under government contract.
In 1905, one of the worst landslides in BC history hit a First Nations village near Spences Bridge. The village was destroyed and 18 people were killed.[4] [5]
On 1 January 2014, the old Spences Bridge, a one-lane steel truss bridge, was decommissioned and permanently closed to all pedestrian and vehicle traffic after 82 years of service. This was deemed necessary by British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure engineers due to the poor condition of the bridge.[6]
North of Spences Bridge is Ashcroft and Cache Creek . Also north is 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, Quesnel, and Prince George . South of Spences Bridge is Lytton, Hope, and Vancouver . East of the town is Merritt and Kelowna .
Spences Bridge's location is mountainous, with higher elevations part of the Interior Plateau. The east side of the Fraser here is part of the Clear Range, a mountainous southwards extension of the Fraser Plateau located in the angle of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers. Arthur Seat lies in that range on the west side of Spences Bridge, and was named by pioneer John Murray for Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, Scotland.[7]
Spences Bridge has a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). The climate is very dry and mild by Canadian standards, with an average annual precipitation of just and low average snowfall of per year. Winters are short and moderately cold for usually brief periods and sunshine hours are very low for a couple of months, while summers are quite long, hot, sunny and dry – compared to the rest of Canada, albeit with comfortable nights. Like much of the lower-altitude valleys in the Thompson Nicola region, there are more days (on average approx. 40 days per year) when temperature exceeds than remain below freezing.
Spences Bridge recorded Canada’s second highest temperature on June 29, 2021, when it reached 48.6° C (119.5 °F). The record is second only to Lytton, which recorded 49.6 °C (121.3 °F) on the same day. However, Lytton had 2 weather stations and one of them recorded a temperature 1 °C (1.8 °F) lower than the other at 48.6 °C (119.5 °F). The station that recorded the higher temperature was later deemed to be correct. Otherwise, Spences Bridge would’ve been tied with Lytton for the highest recorded temperature in Canada.