cityscape
Building Storeys: Rail Bridges
Moving (and preserving) Torontonians over and under busy train tracks.
Every year, Heritage Toronto works with local photographers to create Building Storeys, a visual documentation and anecdotal exhibit of our city’s heritage sites. This year’s exhibit—which is on view at the Steam Whistle Roundhouse throughout the month of May—is dedicated to rail and marine transportation. Over the course of the month, Torontoist and Heritage Toronto are exploring the context for Building Storeys; today we look at Toronto’s rail bridges.
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- <b>Lansdowne Avenue, south of Dundas Street, photographed by Mathew Merrett.</b><br /> <br /> Building a grade separation over Lansdowne Avenue south of Dundas Street was a frustrating experience. Put to a public vote several times during the first decade of the 20th century, it was tangled up in arguments over who should foot the bill: the City of Toronto or railway companies. It seems to have ultimately fallen in the City’s lap and was built by 1910. <br />
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- <b>Lansdowne Subway, January 16, 1915. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 96.</b><br /> <br /> The Lansdowne Subway became a magnet for neighbourhood children, which resulted in several deaths due to being struck by trains or falling to the concrete below. The crossing was rebuilt in 1915 and 1930.<br /> <br />
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- <b>Gerrard Street Subway, November 7, 1923. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 31, Item 69.</b><br /> <br /> When the grade separation at Carlaw Avenue was originally erected, Gerrard Street made a series of sharp jogs that ultimately proved troublesome for streetcars. The eastern jog <a href="http://spacingtoronto.ca/2012/03/25/sunday-curiosity-the-two-gerrard-st-easts/">still exists</a>, though it is currently cut off from the rest of Gerrard by the tracks and a parkette.<br /> <br />
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- <b>Carlaw Avenue and Gerrard Street East, photographed by Rick Harris</b><br /> <br /> On October 7, 1930, after 90 workers spent the night finishing the project, the improved intersection opened for the morning rush hour. That evening’s <em>Star</em> hailed it as “an improvement for which Riverdale has been crying for years.<br /> <br />
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- <b>York Street Bridge. Circa 1908. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 594.</b><br /> <br /> Opened in 1897, the long bridge at the end of York Street, along with a similar structure on John Street, allowed Torontonians access to the central waterfront without having to dodge trains at level crossings. Through streetcar tracks were built on the bridge, they were never used. The structure was demolished in the late 1920s to make way for the waterfront railway viaduct, and was replaced with the current York Street tunnel.<br />
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- <b>Queen Street Subway northeast side, 1894. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 376, File 1, Item 53.</b><br /> <br /> The first grade-separated “subway” in Toronto was built on Queen Street at the eastern edge of Parkdale in 1884. It originally consisted of bridges for two train lines, the <a href="http://www.muskokacomputes.com/CVR-History.html">Credit Valley Railway</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto,_Grey_and_Bruce_Railway">Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway</a>. When the last girder was laid on October 5, 1884, thousands descended on the construction site to witness the event. “Now that the girders are all in place,” reported the following day’s edition of the <em>Globe</em>, “the work of excavating will be carried on much more rapidly, and the residents of Parkdale look forward to a drive through the subway in about ten days.” <br />
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- <b>Queen Street Subway looking east, 1898. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 376, File 2, Item 3.</b><br /> <br /> The Queen Street Subway was rebuilt in 1898. Its basic form would remain intact until, after years of discussion, the <a href="http://torontoist.com/2010/01/dufferin_is_jogging_away_from_its_past/">Dufferin Street jog</a> created when the structure was originally erected was <a href="http://torontoist.com/2010/11/dufferin_underpass_in_dufferin_jog_out/">eliminated in 2010</a>.<br />
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- <b>Old Bathurst Street Bridge, May 2, 1916. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1921.</b><br /> <br /> The first bridge to separate Bathurst Street from train traffic was built soon after the first engine rumbled by in 1855. Refurbished several times over its 60-year lifespan, the first Bathurst Street Bridge provided unimpeded access to Fort York and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Wharf_Lighthouse">Queen’s Wharf</a>.<br />
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- <b>Bathurst Street - Front Street Bridge looking north, August 26, 1916. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1913.</b><br /> <br /> In the summer of 1916, the original Bathurst Street Bridge was replaced by a steel structure that had carried Lakeshore Road over the Humber River since 1903. The move allowed for the construction of a new streetcar service to the eastern end of the Canadian National Exhibition, which fair officials hoped would improve access to the fair.<br />
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- <b>Illustration, the <em>Toronto Star</em>, March 4, 1931.</b><br /> <br /> When the Bathurst Street Bridge was moved in 1916, it was placed on an angle to cross the tracks. By the end of 1920s, plans were made to extend Bathurst Street in a straight line to Fleet Street, to provide better access to new industrial plants and <a href="http://toronto.openfile.ca/toronto/text/past-pieces-toronto-maple-leaf-stadium">Maple Leaf Stadium</a>. To do so, the bridge was swung 26 degrees to link with an extended new bridge on the morning of March 3, 1931. Amid light snowfall, the effort to move the 750 ton bridge took 15 minutes. <br />
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Building Storeys
Steam Whistle Brewing (The Roundhouse, 255 Bremner Boulevard)
May 3–31
FREE
As train traffic grew in Toronto during the second half of the 19th century, the city needed to find ways to reduce the ever-growing number of accidents at level crossings, especially along main rail corridors. Two solutions emerged: having the road bridge over train tracks (primarily near the waterfront) and having trains bridge over the road (called “subways” in the parlance of the day), sometimes lowering the road to accomodate this. The rise in automobile use during the early 20th century and continued expansion of the city resulted in the refurbishing or replacement of many of the early rail bridges.
The images in the gallery trace the development of several of the city’s better known rail bridges, along with structures that vanished long ago.
Besides the sources indicated in the gallery, material in this article was also derived from Toronto’s Railway Heritage by Derek Boles (Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2009) and material prepared for Heritage Toronto by Derek Boles.