Does anybody know if there was every a bridge here over the Humber on Humberline Drive? I have maps that suggest there was but I've never seen an aerial shot that includes it.
Have a look at Humberline just south of Finch West, and you can see the remains of pavement that's directly aligned with the bulk of Humberline's alignment, suggesting that the road used to go straight. I believe that Humberline is a concession road, one kilometre or so to the west of the old Brown's line (now Highway 27). If you follow the line south, you'll see that it lines up with Carlingview Drive and Renforth Drive
These concession roads, incidentally, were often just trails or lines on a map, so it might not have had a bridge over the Humber. Certainly not one which followed the alignment precisely. But abandonment is also possible. Have a look at Fourth Line in Halton. It used to connect with Nottawasaga Road, I believe, and the asphalt and bridge is still there, but for pedestrians only.
It is indeed a former concession road--and even the name "Humberline" (cf. Indian Line and various other "lines") reflects the fact.
Can't recall, but somehow I have an inkling from past map perusal that it actually might have bridged the Humber at some point; though I don't know whether any such bridging survived, at least in "functional" form, Hurricane Hazel--which, of course, coincided with the early stages of Woodbine Race Track's construction...
The Humberline concession resumes north of Rutherford Rd. as Mcgillvray Rd, although it appears that might be a newer road built along the concession line to serve the CP intermodal terminal.
I don't remember any evidence of a past bridge along the Humber at the Humberline ROW. The road definitely did go down into the floodplane where the sports fields in Humberline Park now are, but I think it likely just petered out: there's quite a dramatic rise on the south side of the Humber here up to Rexdale Blvd., and I would be surprised if they had ever bothered to complete the roadway through there because of it.
I don't remember any evidence of a past bridge along the Humber at the Humberline ROW. The road definitely did go down into the floodplane where the sports fields in Humberline Park now are, but I think it likely just petered out: there's quite a dramatic rise on the south side of the Humber here up to Rexdale Blvd., and I would be surprised if they had ever bothered to complete the roadway through there because of it.
It was substantial once, and not all that long ago... aerial shots I have of the area from the City Archives show Finch ending there, and it looks to have been, for a while, the way you got in and out of Humber College in the late 70s and early 80s before development in the area really kicked in. But, as I say, I have a map that suggests a bridge there, but no photo of the road back to the 50s puts a bridge over the river. So I was just wondering if anyone knew of anything older, at least by reputation. A friend of mine strongly suspects there would have been, but given how steep the south side is and how there's no structural of photographic evidence, I really have my doubts.