Looking back through my posts for this past winter, I noticed that I’d not included many photographs of snow, and that just doesn’t present a complete picture of life in Toronto, for readers from afar. So, what better time to show you some snow than in April?! I’m joking … April would normally be a very bad time to take photos of snowy streets — while we usually have a small amount towards the beginning of this springtime month, it’s usually nothing like what we had last weekend, April 14-15.
Nick and I took a walk in it, to and from the Fort York Library where I had a video to return by its due date, and I took my camera along.
Our journey included crossing the old steel bridge on Bathurst Street, which crosses the train-tracks that run along the southern border of the city. It was originally built in 1903 quite a bit further to the west of where it is now, crossing over the Humber River. It was moved to its current location in 1916. I can only imagine the incredible engineering challenge that the moving of such a large heavy structure entailed, back at a time before motorcars and trucks became common. I don’t know for sure, but they probably moved it using a ship traveling along the waterfront, since, back then, Toronto’s harbour reached further north of where it is today, much closer to where the bridge is. (The harbour was susequently filled in with rubble removed when the basements of the houses and buildings in the city were dug.)
I’ve always thought it was called “The Bathurst Street Bridge” but just found this wiki page which identifies it as the “Sir Isaac Brock Bridge”. Apparently it was named in honour of the British Army officer who was assigned to Lower Canada in 1802, following a request from members “Friends of Fort York” organization, as it is situated directly to the east of the Fort York grounds.
(I photographed and wrote about this historic fort in this post, if you’re interested in checking it out. You can also see it in this post as the location of the annual Field Trip Music Festival.)
↑ The library is the lower building past where Nick is. (I took photos of it, including some inside, with permission, shown in this post.) ↑
↑ Looking eastward. Fog hides the CN Tower, which you usually can see beautifully from the bridge. (You can see the base of it near the centre of the photo.) ↑
↑ Looking westward. ↑
↑ Fort York is just beyond. ↑
↑ Looking back to the north. The condo construction is on the site of what I thought was a lovely historic building. It was demolished to make way for this. I wrote about that old building in this post if you’d like to see what once was. ↑
We took another bridge back up, this one being quite new. This pedestrian bridge is called the “Puente de Luz”, which is Chilean for “Bridge of Light”. It bears this name because it was designed by a sculptor from Chile, Francisco Gazitua. A quarter of the bridge, which spans 125 metres, was even built in Chile.
↑ There’s the old steel bridge (to the west). ↑
↑ Looking eastward towards the city core, from the northern end of the yellow bridge. The CN Tower, normally clearly seen from this vantage point, is shrouded in fog. ↑
I’m happy to report that the snow seems to be behind us now. The tulips and daffodils are beginning to bloom in the gardens, and the birds that fly south for the winter are stopping in the city on their way back up north. We spotted two varieties (a Brown Creeper and a pair of Ruby Crowded Kinglets) in the trees yesterday, and are looking forward to seeing more.
Thanks for reading,
xo loulou
