[Mustapha]

I wonder why it took the building of two bridges before some bright individual realized that the hole could simply be filled.

Is there any way to discover the name of that individual (city engineer?)?

There is an earth berm that carries Duplex avenue across Chatsworth ravine (between Chatsworth avenue and Glenview avenue) in north Toronto. This berm has been there - just a wild guess - since the streets were laid out in the 20s.

Obviously you can't walk underneath a berm - this may have been the deciding criteria in favour of a bridge at Crawford.

 

[Edward Skira]

http://torontoist.com/2008/05/historicist_buried_under_bellwoods.php
(I assume it's okay to mention Torontoist since they are such big fans of Mustapha)

Dig out the bridge

We are friends with Torontoist so no problem mentioning them.

 

[thecharioteer]

Is there any way to discover the name of that individual (city engineer?)?

Was it not the legendary RC Harris?

 

[Mustapha]

We are friends with Torontoist so no problem mentioning them.

Thank goodness. For a moment there I felt like Finland did in 1939.

 

[Edward Skira]

I wonder why it took the building of two bridges before some bright individual realized that the hole could simply be filled.

If you read the Torontoist article you'll notice that they only filled it in when they needed to find a place to dump all the soil excavated from building the Bloor subway.

 

[Mustapha]

July 31 addition.






Buried Harbord street bridge.

Would be cool to dig about 5 feet down here, just to expose the tip of the arch.

 

[Northern Light]

Uncovering the Bridges

I would love to see them unearth the Crawford Bridge.

They did a cost estimate a few years back, $6,000,000; that's not too bad (if a bit over my VISA limit)

I imagine with inflation it would probably be $7,500,000 today.

I don't recall ever having seen a cost-estimate for the Harbord Bridge being daylighted.

***

I understand the ravine was also open to Christie Pits originally, meaning there was a Bloor Street Bridge as well.

I've never seen pictures of that one: hint, hint!

Thanks as always to Mustapha and the others who contribute such great work to this thread.

 

[TOfan696]

why were all of these bridges filled in?

 

[Mustapha]

I
***
I understand the ravine was also open to Christie Pits originally, meaning there was a Bloor Street Bridge as well.
I've never seen pictures of that one: hint, hint!
Thanks as always to Mustapha and the others who contribute such great work to this thread.

I get the hint! But I can't find any online pictures; perhaps I am using the wrong search terms. If anyone can help out that would be great. As always, I'm happy to go take the Now picture...

why were all of these bridges filled in?

Well, just sum up the content in the links already posted:

Crawford bridge - material removed during tunneling for the Bloor/Danforth subway was 'dumped' here.

Harbord bridge - houses were built on Grace street on the filled in ravine; so... development purposes.

 

[Anna]

I understand the ravine was also open to Christie Pits originally, meaning there was a Bloor Street Bridge as well.

I've never seen pictures of that one: hint, hint!

I'm not sure there ever was a bridge there. Although it was the route of Garrison Creek, Christie Pits was a man-made sand/gravel pit, so there was a lot of digging & filling going on, and while the Crawford & Harbour street bridges are marked on an old map, there isn't one at Bloor.
This picture is "Willowvale Park : looking north across Bloor st."

There was a also lot of digging & filling going on at Bloor near High Park, with lots of pictures at the Archives - just search for 'Clendenan' or 'Glendonwynne'. (hint, hint) This picture shows the sewer ready for the future street level.

 

[Northern Light]

Thanks, Anna

Thanks Anna.

Good pictures.

Though, I can't see the creek in the pit, so I'm assuming it was buried by then, at this location.

I know the Christie Pit Quarry dates back to at least the 1890's, if not before.

I suspect any bridge that may have been there might have been removed.

A look at the ravine topography to the immediate south, shows that there was valley, of fair depth here.

Garrison creek also had a flow rate only a bit below that of the Don River, so its unlikely that anyone would have crossed without the aid of a bridge. I suppose it could have been culverted from Day 1, but that seems unlikely to me. Perhaps I'm wrong.

 

[adma]

July 31 addition.






Buried Harbord street bridge.

Might this photo be mislabelled? Simply judging by the fact that it's a multi-arch under construction, and the Harbord bridge was single-arched with solid flanking masses--and that looks to be the Trinity-Bellwoods path of Garrison Creek in the background...

 

[chriskayTO]

Might this photo be mislabelled? Simply judging by the fact that it's a multi-arch under construction, and the Harbord bridge was single-arched with solid flanking masses--and that looks to be the Trinity-Bellwoods path of Garrison Creek in the background...

You know, on second look, I think you're correct. I was wondering why they had simply filled in the arches, but this makes sense now. And the angle of the creek seems to confirm that.

 

[Mustapha]

adma, chriskayTO,, you guys are right.

The CRAWFORD street bridge was a triple arch job. Look back a page to my series on the Crawford bridge - the same house can be seen at the end of the bridge.

 

[NomoreaTorontonian]

The Lost Rivers website page on Garrison Creek (http://www.lostrivers.ca/GarrisonCreek.htm) covers a lot of the history. I have a map from 1862 in which only Queen and Bloor cross the Creek. It was almost the west end of Toronto then. Wish I could share the map, but it's too big to send even a section of it.