The City of Calgary in Alberta, Canada recently announced it named a bridge after WWE Hall of Famer Stu Hart to honor the Hart family patriarch for his contributions to professional wrestling in Canada, with Stampede Wrestling, and beyond, as well as the family's contributions to the local community.
The Stu Hart Memorial Bridge sits on Highway 8 over the Elbow River in the city, and is only a short distance away from the Hart family home where generations of professional wrestlers trained, according to a city official during a ceremony held on Wednesday. Stu's son, and fellow Hall of Famer, Bret "The Hitman" Hart also spoke at the ceremony.
"A very special time for my family," Bret said during his short speech. "[When] I think of my dad, I think of someone that's very strong, solid, sturdy as a rock. In a lot of ways, it's very symbolic for my father to be honored with a bridge because he was a bridge in many way to so many people and so many things from wrestling to just his roots in Canada."
Hart began his career in 1946 after being introduced to professional wrestling while in the Royal Canadian Navy. Before serving, he had a successful amateur wrestling career and would have competed at the summer Olympics in 1940 had the games not been canceled due to World War II. He also played two seasons for the Edmonton Eskimos as a center.
He started training wrestlers at "The Dungeon," the gym in the basement of the Hart mansion, in the early 1950s, shortly after he founded Canada's Stampede Wrestling.Hart wrestled his last match in July 1986, a tag match alongside his son, Keith. He died in May 2003 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously in 2010.
