A photo of the bridge taken in 1929 before it opened. This shot is looking east towards downtown. Windsor is on the right hand side.
Construction is winding down, but there is still a crane of some type on top of each tower.
The best part of this picture is the glimpse of the Windsor shoreline and all the houses along Riverside Drive. The silhouette of a church is, I believe, Holy Name of Mary on McEwan, just south of Wyandotte.
I’m not sure if that is Holy Name. Isn’t the top of it crenelated? Could be the church on University near McEwan (sorry can’t remember the name). I believe it is a Chinese catholic church now.
That picture must have been taken at or near the Bob-lo docks.
What’s that in the water…an oil sheen…or just sewage? Can’t see downtown because of the coal smoke. I’m amazed anybody could live in such a place.
Dave, I think you’re right.
A good bet that it’s oil. Plenty of marine traffic pumping bilge water overboard. Those old steam engines were constantly drenched in oil and a lot of it made its way into the rivers and lakes.Coal was the major fuel for everything in those days and coal smoke blanketed the area for decades. It all looks a good deal cleaner now. Its the invisible stuff that get’s ya…..
Definitely Holy Name of Mary in the distance. Interesting how churches and their spires would dominate the urban skyline in the old days. Even now when I come across the bridge on one of my frequent visits, my eyes key on the steeple of the former St. Clare church way off to the southeast….
Don’t remember seeing pic of the bridge without signs at the top of the towers. Could this be the reason for the cranes to haul the signs up? Coal-burning gravity furnaces were common way to heat homes so we all contributed to the smoky air.
Was the riverfront park there at the point, its hard to tell from the photo but it looks untended
Good questio freeman. It looks like they are on thenorth side of the road nearest the river though. At that time there was no park where those houses are at. Though there was one near the bridge. The bathroom is still there from that time.
I dont think there is a sheen in that water. It looks to be like the natural eddys and flow of the current.
On the subject of river-related pictures, BoatNerd just scanned a whole bunch of historical postcards that they purchased. There’s some nice ones of the Detroit river front and a few of Windsor in there as well I think…
http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newsthumbsb/html2/newsthumbs_1729-postcards.htm
I think if you check in the twenties the Boblo boats docked to the east of the Ren. center site, near the Robin Hood silos, and Grand Trunk station. Before the Boblo dock was moved west of the bridge.