Prince Edward Viaduct
Coordinates: 43 ° 40 ′ 31 ″ N , 79 ° 21 ′ 50 ″ W.
| Prince Edward Viaduct | ||
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| use | five lane street, Toronto Subway | |
| Crossing of | Don River | |
| place | Toronto | |
| construction | double-deck arch bridge | |
| overall length | 494 m | |
| width | 26 m | |
| Longest span | 177 m | |
| Clear height | 40 m | |
| opening | October 18, 1918 | |
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The Prince Edward Viaduct (also called Bloor Street Viaduct ) is a double-deck arch bridge in the Canadian city of Toronto . It crosses the Don River east of the city center and connects Bloor Street with Danforth Avenue , two of the city's most important west-east major arteries. The upper level of the 494-meter-long bridge has five lanes, while the Bloor-Danforth line of the Toronto subway runs on the lower level .
construction
The Prince Edward Viaduct was designed by the architect Edmund W. Burke, while Thomas Taylor held the role of the executive engineer. It is an arch bridge of reinforced concrete with a length of 494 meters and a width of 26 meters, the canyon-like valley of Don River crosses height of 40 meters. Both levels of the bridge lie on diagonal beams and I-shaped girders that distribute the load on the supporting pillars. These in turn distribute the load on the framework and the arches resting on concrete pillars.
The bridge also spans major major highways Don Valley Parkway and Bayview Avenue, the GO Transit suburban rail line to Richmond Hill , a power line, and a bike path along the river. To the west of the Prince Edward Viaduct is the shorter Rosedale Valley Bridge towards Parliament Street, which crosses the Rosedale Ravine gorge with Castle Frank Brook , a covered tributary of the Don River.
history
In 1910 the city of Toronto planned a new bridge, but the project failed twice in a referendum in 1911 and 1912. The construction costs of 2.5 million dollars were considered very high, especially since the area east of the Don River was only sparsely populated at that time and the bridge was therefore nicknamed Bridge to Nowhere ("Bridge to Nowhere"). The third referendum on January 1, 1913 was finally successful. City architect Rowland Harris was able to get the bridge to have a second level so that it could be used for a means of mass transportation to be built later.
Initially known as the Bloor Viaduct, the bridge was named Prince Edward Viaduct when it opened on October 18, 1918, named after the Prince of Wales and later King Edward VIII. It took almost five decades to build the subway. Before the subway's Bloor-Danforth line opened in 1966, the lower level of the bridge had to be modified only slightly. Since then, it has connected the stations Castle Frank on the west bank and Broadview on the east bank.
Suicides
At the time the bridge was built, suicides were not yet considered a particular social problem. Because of the ease of throwing yourself off the bridge into the gorge, the Prince Edward Viaduct has attracted more and more suicides over the years. With a total of more than 400 suicides, the bridge was the second most popular attraction for people at risk worldwide after the Golden Gate Bridge .
In 1998 the Toronto City Council decided to take structural measures to prevent further suicides. After several delays, 2003, the "Luminous Veil" (was Luminous Veil ) the architect Derek Revington completed. These are 10,000 steel pipes, each five meters long, attached to an angled steel frame and connected to one another with steel cables. This award-winning design has since provided effective protection against suicide without compromising the view.
Web links
- Prince Edward Viaduct. In: Structurae
- Page from lostrivers.ca about the Prince Edward Viaduct
- Page from torontohistory.org about the Prince Edward Viaduct
Individual evidence
- ↑ Suicides tarnish the Golden Gate. USA Today , January 31, 2005, accessed May 10, 2010 .
- ↑ Bloor viaduct "Luminous Veil" a $ 6 million life saver. (No longer available online.) In: The Strand. University of Toronto October 23, 2003, archived from the original September 28, 2011 ; accessed on May 10, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Luminous Veil Prince Edward Viaduct Safety Barriers. University of Waterloo , September 25, 2005, accessed May 10, 2010 .
