User talk:Dufferin Hall

Dear Wikipedia, You may want to update the "List of Bridges in Toronto" page. Unless I have overlooked it, you don't list any of the incarnations of the bridges spanning the Humber River at Lawrence Avenue West. The road's name has changed various times in it's history in the former Village and later Town of Weston. At some point Lawrence Avenue West within the Weston area was called Eagle Avenue, and at other times Dufferin Road and finally Lawrence Avenue West. It also shows up on some plans as Weston Avenue, but I'm not sure how long that lasted. In any case there has been some form of bridge going across what we now call Lawrence Avenue West since at least the early 1840's, and likely earlier than that time.

Various wooden bridges existed at this location until about 1895 when an iron bridge was built. As far as I'm aware they built it upon the cut stone piers of the previous wooden bridge. Both the immediate predecessor and the iron bridge were known as the Eagle Bridge. This name was still in use even after the road was renamed Dufferin. The iron bridge was replaced in 1940 after being deemed outmoded to modern traffic. The new concrete and metal bridge was opened in mid October 1940. While the approach to the bridge on the Weston side of the Humber River was washed away during Hurricane Hazel on the 15th of October 1954, the bridge itself remained intact. Repairs to the approach were begun on the 17th of October, and based upon photos that I've seen and scanned for the Weston Historical Society the bridge at Lawrence seemed to be in operation again by the 18th of October 1954.

This bridge was still in use well into the 1980's and possibly even the early 1990's. I have photos somewhere that I took but the bridge was renovated and as far as I can recall, slightly widened in the 1990's. I'd have to relocate the photos that I took at that time. As far as I know it was modified further or rebuilt in sections more recently, but again I would have to check those details. Some of the details concerning the bridge can be found on the Weston Historical Society page on Facebook, which I manage for the WHS. Additional details can be found in the old Weston newspaper The Times and Guide and within the archives of the Weston Historical Society, and via the Weston Heritage Conservation District.

I hope this is of some help. The bridge also listed as St Phillips is a simplification of the details concerning the various bridges at that location, and there were a few Albion Bridges over the years. Jane Street has seen changes over the years to some bridges that used to span Black Creek (an old 'half-penny' bridge used to be located on the Fifth Line (Jane Street) near where Pelmo used to intersect the road. Then there were various grade separations that may or may not be listed. Lawrence Avenue West, east of Weston Road was changed from being a level crossing to having the road pass under the railway overpass in 1959-60. Eglinton Avenue West had its grade separation done around about 1965 on the same CNR CPR rail corridor, just east of the Kodak Canada Plant at Kodak Heights east of Weston Road. By contrast Jane Street's level crossing was turning into a raised roadway over the same CNR CPR rail corridor. I'm not sure of the timeframe with respect to the change, but I think it took place in the 1960's.

Rogers Road has also seen a few bridges over the years over it's stretch of the same rail corridor. Rev. Johnston of St. Philips Anglican Church had done a watercolour painting of the old wooden bridge over the railway down by what is now Rogers Road, but which used to be called Old Weston Road. The City of Toronto Archives have some images of the two stage iron and wooden bridges that used to extend over the railway linking Rogers Road with Weston Road, and they have images of the changeover to the larger concrete and metal bridge that replaced the earlier structures. Again, I forget the exact date for the changeover, but I seem to recall that it was in the late 1950's, with a temporary pedestrian bridge built alongside it during the construction of the new bridge.

I best break off there. I meant originally just to address the Lawrence Avenue Bridge over the Humber, and to some extent the old Wadsworth Arch bridge and it's wooden predecessors at what is now St Phillips Bridge. In the meantime, I don't know if I should mention the smaller bridges on Lawrence Avenue West, east of Jane Street that cross Black Creek or not.

Anyway, I hope this information is of some use.

Dufferin Hall (talk) 04:20, 25 October 2021 (UTC)