Some comments the other day were asking about the peabody bridge. I don’t have much info about it, but here’s what I do have.
A postcard view, you can see the bridge to the right of the silos.
An aerial view from 1952
1981 – Note the Peabody building is still standing. If you look at the corner of Devonshire and Riverside Dr. you can see the footprint of the flatiron building.
2007
A view from 1913 of the Peabody Building, and the Peabody Bridge.
Obviously the bridge was in place in 1913, and was well built, as it lasted into the 1990’s, only being removed after the rail lines came off the river front.
As much as we’re all fans of the heritage of the city, I doubt you’ll find many tears shed over the loss of the Peabody bottleneck. 😉
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This is worth looking at while we're on the subject...
http://www.walkervilletimes.com/war-peabody.html
As kid, I hated going over that bridge as my stomach would always seem to drop by the quickness of the descent off that bridge.
I can't say that I miss traversing the old bridge, but it did make for an interesting riverfront landmark. The space it created between what would be the riverfront park, if it existed at the time, would have joined up with Old Walkerville and the Walker Power building to create a great link between the new and the old.
Thanks Andrew, I emailed you 1 photo once of the peabody bridge it was in black and white....I was looking for your email to send it to you and i lost it......can you email me and give me your email so i can email you the picture of the peabody bridge, so maybe you can post it on here as well.....thanks
Ps...No i don't miss the peabody bridge! LOL! Winter days it was awful driving on it!
But i did drive on it 1,000 times because you had to!
not sure if you saw my photo on flickr that i posted of these 2 people standing on the peabody in the 40s?
or the other one i posted that was taken on wyandotte in the 40s with the same person in it. maybe i will email them to you.
The bridge must have been redone at least once.If you look in your last picture of it you would notice it ended at the end of the factory there and at the side road.In the first postcard view picture it ends past the side road and little farther down Riverside Drive past the factory.It may have been built it 1913 but it was extended or rebuilt at least once.Maybe it was rebuilt after the bombing of the factory.Not sure of when that happened but I do remember reading about it.
In the recent ariel photo you can see where the peabody building once was compared to the others. I don't remember that building at all but do remember the bridge. Of course I was about 10 yrs old when the building was demolished. When was the flatiron building demolished and what is the building called that still stands today that was right next to (just south) the peabody building?
Colin, the Flatiron came down around 1991-1992 I think...
As for your second question, I'm not sure which building south of the Peabody building you're asking about...
I remember that bridge a little bit from my childhood... I remember going with my dad to work (at CNR) when i was younger, when he worked on the Waterfront yard, before things moved to Dougall Ave yard. I remember him taking me on the train under that bridge and going by the VIA station. I also remember just after the yard was closed, and the rails were just lifted up to the Hiarm Walker Grain Elevator, and CNR rented 2 of the older VIA Rail Coaches for the Families of local CNR Employees to take the train from Pilette Road Yard down to the Waterfront for the Fireworks, and they parked the engine & Cars right under the bridge, and we twalked up a few blocks to watch them. It still feels weird going by there now a days and thinking about the bridge was there, just like the former underpass on Wyandotte, feels weird not going up and down anymore.
Hah, small world. Made a blog post on 'Visuals today about the Walker Power Building, as I noticed recently there is work going on inside. As rundown as it is, demolition there would be another great loss for the city. Funny how Walkerville has changed so much with the de-industrialization and removal of the rail lines.