Fort York bridge demolition hints at Gardiner's future - blogTO (blog)
For more than 160 years, a bridge has crossed a deep man-made trench south of Fort York. The railway cut, carved east to west near the foot of Bathurst St. , once carried track belonging to the Grand Trunk Railway to a maintenance facility on the waterfront. Until a few weeks ago, the only conspicuous evidence the tracks ever existed was a Gardiner Expressway-era bridge that carried Fort York road traffic over the vacant trench. For the first time since 1854, there is no structure carrying traffic over the former route of the GTR railway. The bridge was located near the present site of the new Fort York Visitor Centre and was for a time the only access point to the military grounds. A second bridge that carried the streetcars of the Toronto Railway Company was added in 1916, but the original wooden structure lingered until the 1950s, when it was replaced by what would be a short-lived steel and timber arrangement. The Gardiner Expressway was built directly over the railway trench in 1960, reaching its highest elevation as it passed Fort York. The highway had to be built unusually tall through the area in order to accommodate a new bridge that was constructed to carry Garrison Rd. over the formidable slopes of the railway corridor. Source: www.blogto.com
