The Prince Edward Viaduct

my favorite bridge in Toronto

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Prince Edward Viaduct System is the name of a truss arch bridge system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that connects Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east. It is more commonly known as the Bloor Street Viaduct, The Bloor Viaduct or simply The Viaduct, spans the Don River Valley, crossing over (from east to west) the Don Valley Parkway, the Don River.

Designed by Edmund W. Burke, the Prince Edward Viaduct is a three hinged concrete-steel arch bridge, with a total span of 494 metres at 40 metres above the Don Valley. The bridge consists of a deck, made up of transverse beams and I-girders, which transfer load to column supports. The column supports then transfer the load to the trusses within the arches, which transfer the load to the arches themselves. Finally, the arches transfer their load through large hinges, which transfer load to a concrete pillar, and eventually to the ground.

Appearance in popular culture

A scene from the movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse was filmed on the Viaduct.

The song War On Drugs by the Barenaked Ladies was inspired by, and refers to, the Viaduct.

The humorous song Anything could happen by Bruce Cockburn opens with "You could have gone off the Bloor Street Viaduct".

The bridge plays a key role in the play In Gabriel's Kitchen by Salvatore Antonio, which is set before construction of the Luminous Veil.

In a Degrassi Junior High episode titled Dog Days, the character Stephanie Kaye contemplates jumping off the Viaduct to commit suicide. Her brother Arthur later talks her out of it.

In the Spoons music video for Romantic Traffic, lead singer Gordon Deppe looks out from the Viaduct as the TTC subway train he is in passes through it.

The film Saint Monica, set in Toronto, prominently features the Viaduct.

The song "National Hum" by The Constantines refers to the construction of the Luminous Veil: "Your mayor is raising fences to keep bodies off the Don Valley Parkway."

• The construction of the bridge was used as a setting for the historical fiction of Michael Ondaatje's novel In the Skin of a Lion.

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