The Queen Street Viaduct

Not as grand as the Bloor Street Viaduct (or Prince Edward Viaduct as it is more properly known) but the Queen Street Viaduct has been around in one form or another for much longer.

There have been a number of bridges over the Don River at Queen Street since the early 1800's. The current bridge dates from 1911. Looking east from the west side (see the photo below) you can see a few things:

1. That it is a Pratt Truss bridge (for the engineers)
2. The streetcar tracks and power lines
3. A saying "This river I step in is not the river I stand in" across the top (that comes from the philosophy of Heraclitus)

The saying and the (now not working) clock are parts of an art installation along with words inscribed in the sidewalks at the four corners of the intersection of Queen St E and Broadview Ave and some pennants still further east on Queen St.

The four corners of Queen and Broadview contain the inscriptions:

TOO SOON FREE FROM TIME

TIME IS MONEY: MONEY IS TIME

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

TIME=DISTANCE X VELOCITY

 

Also, between Broadview and the bridge there are patterns in the sidewalk that make it look like a winding river.

The earlier bridges (see the 'Queen Street Viaduct' link earlier) were much lower (closer to river level) and the Don Station building was on the west side of the river by the CPR tracks. This building has been saved and is currently at Roundhouse Park downtown. Some earlier photos follow:

1. Looking SSE from where the western end of the bridge is now

2. Looking NE from track level

The picture below was taken by me about 20 years ago while the Don Station had been located in the Todmorden Mills area further north in the Don Valley.

Now it looks like:

Some more info on the Don Station is in an earlier post I made.

Finally, some views from the bridge itself - looking north up the Don Valley Parkway:

Looking south along the river:

And looking north along the river (not the same day as above 😸 )

The old Don Jail

Having lived in various parts of the east end of Toronto for 43 years, it seemed amazing that it took this long to finally visit the Don Jail. Just walked over and walked in!

Now admittedly parts of it continued operating as a jail until 2013, but still - it's a cool building and I have walked by it many times. The original building is now the administration building for Bridgepoint Active Healthcare (with the main Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital to the west of it).

So this post is looking at what is left of the jail in the main administration building.

First, from the outside, an impressive entrance:

The stone sculpture over the entrance is Father Time (nobody escapes Father Time)

The main front door is quite heavy. Wood on the outside...

...and copper plated on the inside.

Stairs down to the basement.

Some kind of assembly area(?) in the basement. With a short video playing on a loop. By the way, during the entire time I was in the building I didn't see another person. Nobody at the door to say hi or sign me in. You just wander in and can follow plaques on the wall giving information and some directions (but I think I missed some, so there will need to be another visit). The administration offices were all separate so you can't go in and walk around them :-)

Here's an original cell. About three feet wide with a tiny cot pretty much filling it up.

There was also a 'segregation cell' (which looks a lot like where Harry Potter slept under the stairs for Harry Potter fans!)

Turns out that the prisoners didn't mind this because it was wider than their single cells - though it was dark with no light.

A room number with an old picture of what the jail used to look like.

Working my way up from the basement, this is the main atrium on the first floor with matching glass floor and roof designs.

Still have the arched entrances to cells - now missing their iron bars (mostly) with open office space behind.

View of the atrium from the second floor, other side.

Looking down from the middle of the second floor.

Locking sliding doors at either end of each floor.

And view from the third floor.

Finally, the fourth floor. Just to look at the heating and air conditioning details for the building. Looks like some nice ducts for escaping through - *nobody* would ever suspect that route.

Some more info on the jail and bits of its history are at the Sinai Health website at https://www.sinaihealth.ca/patients-and-visitors/the-historic-don-jail. The infamous Boyd Gang were here for a while.

And for interest, a picture of the new hospital next door: