Old Finch Avenue Bailey Bridge

Last Friday was Good Friday. It was a holiday. I was kind of at loose ends so I decided to go on GoogleMaps and browse around and set myself an interesting photographic assignment for the day.

I settled on a place I hadn’t been before (at least, I don’t remember having been before): the Bailey bridge that carries Old Finch Avenue across the Rouge River. I actually had to cross it before I could shoot it. It’s a single-lane span and there was a light just before it that controlled access to it. I had to wait for a bit before I could cross.

There’s a lot for parking in just the other side of the river. I parked there; the lot was wet and muddy. It’s been a very snowy winter here and it still shows. I followed a short path down to the river to shoot the bridge from below. I was surprised just how busy the bridge is. I’d say cars went across it about once a minute on average.









When I’d been looking around on GoogleMaps, I’d also noticed another span further downstream. I wanted to see if I could get a look at it. Doing so involved easing down some rather treacherous stone stairs and following a snowy, shoe-filling trail as far down the river as I could get, which was, as it turned out, as far as I needed to go to glimpse the bridge. I was between the water and the cliffside; I couldn’t go any further. In warmer weather, it would have been no obstacle. I would have forded the river and made my way to the bridge. Not in weather like this, of course. But I really do intend to go back this spring or summer and do just that. Stay tuned. :)





Heading home, I had to cross the bridge again going the other way. I happened to glimpse a raccoon using the bridge to cross. He wandered to the side and tucked himself under the bridge as I approached. I really wish I'd been manning a camera... such a wonderful opportunity squandered.