This summer, as I've been finding it easier to get around and having more energy to do so, I've made a virtue of getting back out and visiting old bridges I've documented in the past, as well as a few I've never been to before. I'd like to share with you now a little of what I've seen.
Wiley Bridge on Gorewood Drive
I'm not exactly sure when this bridge in Peel Region was essentially removed from the road grid; at a guess, I'd say the 1960s or 1970s. Technically speaking, it can still be accessed by Conservation Area vehicles; I suppose if you were sneaky and bold enough, it would still be possible to get your car onto it. Given that it's essentially a pedestrian bridge now, I wouldn't advise it, though. Despite being an arch bridge on the Humber River, this one wasn't designed and built by Frank Barber, but by Langton and Bartho around 1924. A number of homes still exist on this road just a five minute walk or so back up the hill behind you in the view below.
Vigo Bridge on Flos Road 4
Encountering it for the first time on July 26, I missed driving on this Simcoe County bridge only by a year or two. It's been superseded by a new bridge about 50 metres to the north. I don't know if they're going to keep this bridge around or tear it down, but either way, I've documented it as it existed in the summer of 2020.
Old Shiloh Road Bridge
The Old Shiloh Road bridge is still in use in the extreme northeast of York Region. While I was there on August 3, it was crossed by some car or truck every minute or two. Sooner or later, as the area grows more suburban, this bridge will be replaced, but as far as I know, it's safe for now.
River Street Bridge
Found in Seagrave near Port Perry in Durham Region, this pony truss bridge once carried Simcoe Street traffic, until it was superseded. But this bridge remained in use. In fact, it's a rare instance of one where the municipality really went to bat to keep it in use. Just a couple of years ago, it was removed, refurbished, and then set back into place with a new lease on life.
I went out to see the bridge for myself on August 3.
Old Langstaff Road Bridge
Despite its being the closest of the three to my home, I visited this bridge for the first time only this summer, on August 1. Built around 1923, this is one of three Frank Barber bow arch bridges still existing on the Humber River, and, as far as I can tell, the only one for which no active plans to demolish it exist. This bridge carried Langstaff Road east from Islington Avenue till it was replaced by a modern span about 100 metres south sometime in the 1970s, at which point, I assume, it was removed from the road grid.
I'm surprised York Region isn't taking the refurbishment of this bridge and the trails associated with it more seriously. It's in the middle of a populous suburb, and is at the immediate south end of the Boyd Conservation Area, which is extremely popular with the locals. Clearly they're using this bridge to access it, however unofficially. It seems to me it would make a wonderful pedestrian access if only the region would put a little money into it.
McEwen Bridge on Kirby Road
This is another Frank Barber bow arch on the Humber. I was first out to see it on a rainy September Saturday back in 2006. Built around 1923, this bridge has been closed to vehicular traffic since the 1970s when a landslide dropped part of Kirby Road down into the Humber River below. Reading between the lines on the sign at the trail head, it appears that, despite being in comparatively good shape (at least to my eye), this bridge looks like it's about to be pulled down and replaced by some modern pedestrian bridge in support of the trail that this stretch of Kirby Road has become. This bridge is now closed off by mesh fencing at both ends, but it hardly presents a real obstacle to crossing the bridge by foot. I was down there on August 1, and was actually just a few dozen steps behind another photographer.
Old Major Mackenzie Bridge on Humber Bridge Trail
I've been out to this bridge something like a dozen times since 2013 or so. Up until 2018, you could actually drive across it. Prior to about 1990, this was the original course of Major Mackenzie Drive, which has since bypassed it about a kilometre to the south, creating a dogleg at Hwy 27, a new course correction of which is currently under construction and will open soon. A terrible sharp switchback, running immediately to the left of the house below, used to carry traffic down to the river to the one-lane bow arch designed and built by Frank Barber around 1914. Since 1990, the bridge has existed merely to serve the people living at the house, number 5789, shown below. The bridge was in bad shape, and York Region could either have spent an estimated $800 thousand to $1.7 million to refurbish it, or buy the house and tear it and the bridge down. They opted for the latter, and in 2017, the region bought the house for $1.28 million. This summer, they are both being torn down.
P-Doug and I were out there on April 11, where a guy living just the other side of the river broke the news to us that he'd heard the house and bridge were going to be demolished.
P-Doug and I went back on August 1st. Sure enough, there was construction... or maybe "deconstruction" would be more appropriate... equipment was on site. It appeared that what we'd heard in April was indeed the case. This venerable old bridge, one of the remaining few designed by Frank Barber, was, apparently, about to be torn down.
The house at 5789 was still standing, but of course, if the bridge was due to be removed, the house had to go first. The closed part of the original course of Major Mackenzie Drive (faintly visible here as the rise to the left of the trees) had been closed around 1990, so the bridge was the only remaining way to get at the house.
After being out there, I searched the net to see if there was any news backing all this up. Turned out there was.
I also found other corroborating information from the region itself revealing the plan to be definite. Knowing we had to keep an eye on things, we returned on August 15. The bridge was in its shroud.
The house, which had been built sometime in the 1960s, had been torn down.
Back in late 2013, I tried to hike up the old closed switchback of the original course of Major Mackenzie drive. It was rough going then, and fallen trees stopped me about 2/3 of the way up. This time, it was hard to tell there'd ever been a road at all, and I didn't get more than a a few dozen yards up the lower slope before I simply had to stop. I don't think anyone will ever again follow the original course of Major Mack up the slope to the neighbourhood just off to the left, high above.
At one time, this was something like the view you'd have had turning from the bottom of the switchback onto the straight course of Major Mack again. That's the bridge in the medium distance. The driveway to 5789 is just there on the left.
P-Doug went to clean the mud off his sandals and discovered the intricate scaffolding holding the bridge up to support the heavy equipment crossing it... the last traffic it will ever carry. This bridge is due to be gone by October, according to the contract.
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thanks
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