The Lower Don - Queen Street to Lakeshore Blvd

May 6 2017

As part of the Jane's Walk Weekend I went for the " Discover the lower Don River Valley" walk. We started off at the North East corner of Queen and Broadview and crossed the Don at the Queen St Viaduct. Just before the Viaduct is a plaque which states that the Scadding House used to be near this site.

View from the Queen St Viaduct - South Side

The Queen St Viaduct

The Queen St Viaduct is a steel Pratt Truss bridge which was built in 1911. The art installation at the top was laid down by Eldon Garnet in 1996.

A series of steps leads down from the south end of Queen St to the Lower Don Trails. The trail is a narrow paved road that runs along the river. The Don is far from mighty. It is channeled and tamed and flows like a well behaved child quietly on the left side of the trail. Any sound it could make is drowned by the traffic on the DVP which runs right alongside. To me this whole section of the Don was disheartening. The one bright spot was a pair of swans that were nonchalantly swimming in the river.

Looking back north from here I could see the Bloor viaduct in the distance.

We soon came to a disused bridge which had a wire fence blocking the entrance. But we were able to get through a hole in the fence. This was the Old Eastern Avenue Bridge. There are actually two bridges. To the north is the concrete arch bridge which is used by Enbridge to carry a gas main and to the south is the Howe Truss bridge, which is a Truss bridge like the Queen St Bridge. It was closed off in 1964 after the DVP was built. It was not demolished because that would have been too expensive.

The Howe Truss bridge with the concrete arch bridge on the left

The trail leads up to a fork in the road. To the right is the Corktown Common. This is supposed to be the highlight of the West Donlands development project. I am not a huge fan of built up parks but considering that this area was an abandoned industrial area, I guess it is an improvement.

The Pavilion at Corktown Common

The Splash Pool which was empty

If you continue along the trail, bypassing the Common, you have the Don on your left again.

There is a lot of street art here. There is a small bridge which crosses the river and at this point I stopped my walk as there was a railway crossing between me and the river. By now all the noise of the DVP and all the built up areas with the Don struggling through it all had got to me. It was time to go back home and explore a less urbanized area of the Don on another day.