Old and New Toronto - Half Mile Bridge

I was interested to see this photo (below) in a book ("The Railways of Toronto" - The First Hundred Years by John Riddell) as it was taken relatively close to our house. So of course I wanted to see if I could find it today - and take a picture from approximately the same point. (Click to enlarge)

As it turns out, finding it was not difficult! It still exists today and is known as Half Mile Bridge. And it's not the original bridge in this location, but was built in 1928 to handle the heavier engines! (At least, as per this story - perhaps more interesting if you are into trains. Are you a ferroequinologist?

I could have got a 'closer to the original' photo if I had walked up the valley (or had hovered over the on-ramp to the Don Valley Parkway), but the picture below is from just below Chester Hill Lookout and is recognizably the same bridge. Maybe I can stop on the DVP one day and take a picture from the ground (at the bottom left of the picture below). I'm sure traffic won't mind ducking around me as I stop on the on-ramp there.

Some other pictures and stories (e.g. of walking over it) can also be found here. And for those who long for a litlle colour in these stories of yesteryear:

The Tulip Tree

I have posted various pictures of our tulip tree (or 'Liriodendron') on Facebook as it never ceases to amaze me:

1. How fast it has grown
2. How cool the leaves are
3. How cool the flowers are
4. And how much it changes year to year.
5. (2018/3/10 update: see last picture)

So here are some random notes, including a short history of our tree.

We got it for our back yard back in Oct, 2007 from the 'LEAF' program, and at the time we were told that there were two types - one that grew to about 40ft (ours allegedly) and one that grew to about 60ft. (Check out the first link to see how these may be vast underestimates!)

Some maps of their distribution show them not being native to Ontario, but Ontario Trees&Shrubs (scroll to the bottom) shows it as being in various places thorughout the province.

Here's the new tree in 2007! (Click any picture to enlarge)

(Spoiler alert: The two trees to the left eventually get pushed out due to the shade). So, perhaps 8-10ft tall at this point. By Oct. 2009 it seems to have made itself at home:

Still no flowers - we thought perhaps the leaves looked a bit like tulips in cross-section, but that's not how it got its name! According to Wikipedia (and other references)

The Scientific Greek Liriodendron actually means "lily tree"

Perhaps the Greeks had never seen tulips?

Skip ahead a couple more years (Sept. 2011) and the construction next-door may have slowed it down a bit. However it's over 20ft tall by now. Still no flowers though.

Aug. 2014 and it's about 30ft tall...

...and the leaves are getting big.

(well, to a fly).

Lovely colour in the fall:

And a couple of  pictures by Jon (to help us forget how many leaves we actually have to rake):

Speaking of leaves, it does keep us busy in the fall.

It cuts a fine figure in winter and at night too. This picture was illuminated by me waving a flashlight around while the shutter was open.

And then finally, we saw (the late season shell of) a flower!

So what do these *really* look like? We were lucky enough to have a few in 2016, then a veritable flood in 2017. And they look like this:

The tree is now pushing 40ft tall. I expect it will suddenly stop growing, so as to not prove the 'LEAF' program wrong, since tulip trees are known to be very considerate of our feelings.

2018/3/10: Just when it seemed that there couldn't possibly be anything else to talk about for this tree :-) I saw the remains of multitudes of last year's 'tulips' in the tree. And this after 3 months of winter, rain, ice, etc! Gives a good idea of how many flowers there were last year, compared the the handful the previous year.