Harbord Street Bridge Explained

Bridge Name:Harbord Street Bridge
Carries:single vehicle lanes for both directions
Crosses:Garrison Creek (Bickford Park Ravine)
Locale:Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Design:arch bridge
Length:10.5m (34.4feet)
Width:16.45m (53.97feet)
Clearance:unlimited
Below:7m (23feet)
Traffic:Harbord Street
Open:1914

The Harbord Street Bridge is one of two known bridges that once spanned Harbord Street over Garrison Creek in Toronto and was partially buried intact in the 20th Century (the other is the Crawford Street Bridge to the south).

The Harbord Street Bridge was a single-span reinforced concrete Arch bridge built from 1909 to 1914 that carried Harbord over Garrison Creek in the area known today as Palmerston–Little Italy and for the extension of Beatrice Street to Bloor Street West.[1] The bridge was built to allow the better means for people in the new residential development to move around the neighbourhood. The bridge crossed over the creek from Montrose Avenue to Grace Street. The bridge bisects the Bickford Park neighbourhood with Bickford Park to the north side and Harbord Park (Art Eggleton Park) to the south. Infilling of the area around the bridge began in 1917 [2] and both sides were filled by 1930, likely due to sewage being dumped into the creek following residential development,[3] but the balustrades on either side were still exposed. Today, only the northern balustrade remains visible. Like the Crawford Street Bridge, it was not torn down but buried. The bridge, the valley, and the creek have all now disappeared underground.

See also

External links

43.6598°N -79.4185°W

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Harbord Street Bridge at Bickford Park Ravine, November 22, 1913, . October 1, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101103215159/http://bickfordpark.ca/node/32 . November 3, 2010 . dead .
  2. http://humanriver.ca/?page_id=39 Human River - Garrison Creek
  3. http://www.lostrivers.ca/GarrisonCreek.htm Garrison Creek