From the Border Cities Star – May 6, 1930:
- This sketch shows the manner in which the Dougall Avenue subway under the M.C.R. will be widened in accordance with an order of the Board of Railway Commissioners. The section on the left is the present subway. The present eastern abutment will be cut down to form a pier, and a new abutment will be built 30 feet to the east, forming two 30-foot roadways, with a centre pier between.
Here’s the same bridge today. The western half is the original, while the eastern half is the “new” section built in 1930.
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Thank you to everyone who’s placed orders already. Once the pre-sale period closes, I’ll be in touch.
I had no idea it was two phases. Anyone know when the first part was built? And wasn’t there another bridge close by that has since been removed?
They totally forgot about pedestrians and cyclists back then, and have yet to address that issue. I actually believe this, along with EC Row and the Grand Marais ditch were in part meant to create a buffer between “old Windsor” and “new Windsor”.
There were actually two more viaducts over Dougall (A total of 3). The bridge depicted here carried the main line, where as the other two bridges connected the two rail yards. (There used to be a large rail yard where The Roundhouse Centre is now).
The two other bridges last saw use in the 70s, however they were not dismantled until around 1998-1999. The red viaduct in this article still see’s use by CN.
Interesting. Never knew that.
I agree that this is a huge impedance to bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
I had no idea they were already building such ugly bridges in the 1930’s!
Was there not an idea of pedestrian / cyclist tunnels on both sides into the embankment ? These would be long and wide tunnels, well lit and maybe art work to give a Paris subway feel to it ( my thought ). This would connect south windsor with the rest of the city in a grand path manner. This would encourage non-vehicular traffic from the burbs.
shane railroad trestles are built to be functional not pretty
i know gary.. i was just being a smartass…
but there are pretty ones too!!
http://www.billwrigley.com/scenery/17.jpg
PeterD, you don’t really beleive that this stuff was designed to seperate the city, do you?
A side from the fact that the ditch is a natural water feature, and is actually named Turkey Creek, those rail lines, ALL rail lines in this city including the Essex Terminal, were built thru farmers feilds. As a matter of fact, reading the history of the Essex Terminal,there is a funny instance when there was a delay building the tracks approaching Dougal from the East. The superintendent of the railway says to the forman something like “why the hell havn’t the tracks been completed past this road?!?!” and the foreman replies “because the farmer hasn’t moved his G** Damn manure piles yet!”. This is near 1915 too. I don’t think when this was built they gave any consideration to people and bikes because people rode bikes on the street thru MINIMAL traffic out this far. I could be wrong, but if you were headed to anything past this point on your bike in the 30’s you’d have had a damn good reason. There were probably homes along the creek and a few scattered show homes for prospective sub divisions,maybe a little development in these sub divisions, and that’s about it. If you lived in one of those houses, you probably had a car anyways.
Aaron is correct.
The Essex-Windsor leg of the Canada Southern Railway was laid in 1883. The original grade separation likely dates back to that year as well, before it was widened around 1930.
The (original) grade separation was installed due to the fact that the tracks were built up on a steep embankment connecting the two sides of the hump yard. (For those that don’t know, a railroad hump yard has a large ‘hump’ in the middle that the rail cars are pushed/rolled down onto their correct siding).
Here is a picture of the area back in 1946:
http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/images/windsor-38.jpg
These are the other two viaducts that crossed Dougall (which were removed in the late 90s). As you can see, there are no bikes, cars, or pedestrians on the road at this point as this was still a fairly rural area.
So this rail line was built back in 1883 in some kind of conspiracy to separate ‘old’ and ‘new’ Windsor?? That logic makes no sense. I’d say about 80-90% of Windsor as we know it today was built after 1883.
If this was to seperate anything it was not people in Windsor, until 1965, when you crossed the C P tracks on Dougal Rd. you where in Sandwitch West Township. The Elmwood, and Dorwin Plaza where outside Windsor. Early closing bylaws was why Dorwin was built there.
I forgot about the other viaducts there, but after seeing the picture, it seems familiar to me. I didn’t start driving on my own until the time they came out, and I didn’t frequent that part of town much, anyway. I do kind of remember when they were putting in those rocks and things on the embankment. I guess that was to pretty the place up after they took the other bridge out.
why not have someone paint a mural on both sides like the “SPIRIT ” of Windsor train that is down town passing through !!! a nice touch to a awful looking over pass while i am on the subject why is it taking so long to have that bike and walking path built ? have you notice that they have destroy the grass on both sides nothing but groves and pot holes from bikes Trying to get around i live just around the corner and have seen them replace all that grass etc. more than a few times so far no one has been killed from falling on that busy stretch of road i for one have seen with my own eyes elderly people mostly falling on to the road thank God the cars were not close at the time . our mayor has said they would look into it …look into it????? this has been place on deft ears much much too long do you agree ?