Toronto's Bridges: Charles Sauriol Bridge

We'll finish our exploration of arch bridges in Toronto with a look at another reinforced concrete through arch. The Charles Sauriol Bridge is similar to yesterday's Pottery Road Bridge, except the concrete hangers aren't flared, there's a sidewalk extending outside of the arch, and the ends of the arch are protected with short, decorative walls.

This bridge carries drivers across the Don River to the parking lot for the Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve. It also carries bicyclists across the river and back onto the Don River Bike Trail. The trail is about 14 km in length from Lake Ontario to Edwards Gardens and goes over and under a variety of interesting bridges. More information on the trail can be obtained at: http://www.ontariobikepaths.com/DonRiver.htm

Toronto's Bridges: Charles Sauriol Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Toronto's Bridges: Pottery Road Bridge

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the farming communities north of Lake Ontario needed to cross the Lower Don River and many bridges were built.

The Pottery Road Bridge is a reinforced concrete horseshoe arch that was built in 1928. A parallel girder bridge was built in 1977 to carry northbound traffic. The original bridge was renovated in 1988.

This is a through arch, but with the deck supported by reinforced concrete hangers instead of with steel cables.  

More information on bridges crossing the Lower Don River can be obtained at: http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/ravinesbridges.htm

Toronto's Bridges: Pottery Road Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Toronto's Bridges: Dundas Street Bridge

We are continuing down the Don River in Toronto to our next bridge. It's another three span crossing, but with a steel deck arch only for the center span over the river.  This bridge is not quite as elegant as the last few bridges we've been studying, but it still seems quite serviceable. Its main problem is that its old and poorly maintained. The concrete pier on the right has long vertical cracks, suggesting that the reinforcement is rusted, expanding, and causing the concrete to split.  In fact a lot of the concrete that should be on the piers appears to have spalled and fallen onto the ground. I read that the city of Toronto planned to do some repairs and hopefully it's now in better shape.

However, the steel members look in good repair (freshly painted and no rust). In fact, the steel members looks beefier than the Gerard Street Bridge, with deeper arch ribs and with stiffer cross-bracing between the spandrel columns. Since both the Gerard and Dundas Bridges are four lane bridges carrying streetcars, the Dundas Bridge may have been designed more conservatively simply because it is an older design.

Toronto's Bridges: Dundas Street Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Toronto's Bridges: Gerard Street Bridge

We are continuing south on the Don River in Toronto, past the Riverdale Park Bridge to a three-span steel, deck arch; the Gerard Street Bridge. This is a nicely designed structure. The three pinned arches are clearly articulated at the piers and at midspan.  The concrete piers support the deck and the arches through openings in the piers. Even the lampposts are nicely designed on concrete bases on the outside of the barrier rail.  

These bridges not only span the Don River but Don Valley Parkway and Bayview Avenue, requiring three long spans. This makes steel deck arch spans a good solution, as long as the abutments can resist the longitudinal force from the arches.

Toronto's Bridges: Gerard Street Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Toronto's Bridges: Riverdale Park Bridge

This is a pedestrian bridge that links the east and west sides of Riverdale Park across the Don River in Toronto. It is a viaduct that includes a steel deck arch for the river crossing.

The arch is a clean and elegant design. There are no spandrel columns and the arch transitions into the steel girders rather than sitting below them.  You can see stiffeners radiating out from where the arch joins the steel girders.

Toronto's Bridges: Riverdale Park Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Toronto's Bridges: Humber Bay Arch Bridge

The Humber Bay Bridge is a basket-handle suspended-deck arch crossing the mouth of the Humber River in Toronto. The main span is 330 ft (100 m) long and the arch rises 70 ft (21.3 m) above the deck. It was designed by Montgomery and Sisam Architects and Delcan Corporation Structural Engineers. Construction was completed in 1994.
The deck has a prestressed central spine like a bowstring to hold onto the ends of the arch. The bridge was built on land and then moved by barge and cranes into position across the Humber River.

The bridge allows pedestrians and bicyclists to travel along what was an aboriginal trail beside Lake Ontario. The bridge includes Native American symbols such as the thunderbird motif in the arch cross-bracing. More information about this bridge can be obtained at the Waterloo Website.

Toronto's Bridges: Humber Bay Arch Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Toronto's Bridges: Prince Edward Viaduct

Often, when a viaduct goes through a city, it creates an ugly wall that acts as a boundary between communities. However, the Prince Edward Viaduct is so tall and open that it improves the environment.

The Don River Valley makes a pleasant change from the noise and traffic of downtown Toronto and the Prince Edward Viaduct is tall enough (40 m) so you are barely aware that five lanes of traffic and a train are rumbling by overhead.

This double-deck viaduct was built after a couple of false starts in 1918.  The bridge has a nice open design that looks more like wrought iron than a steel truss arch.  Spandrel columns carry the load from floor beams to the arches which are supported at the bottom of the concrete piers.

This photo was taken before a special barrier was built in 2003 that reduced suicides on the bridge to zero.

Toronto's Bridges: Prince Edward Viaduct by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.