The Prince Edward Viaduct

1. The Prince Edward Viaduct A bridge between fiction and reality

2. The Photographer Most of the following pictures and many of the available pictures of the Prince Edward Viaduct were taken by Arthur Goss, the first official photographer for the city of Toronto. He was photographer for Toronto from 1911 to 1940 during which he took over 35,000 photos.

3. Design Designing and planning a viaduct in Toronto took time and patience, as the bridge was unpopular at first and later would cost far more than originally predicted.

4. Concepts and Designs - A viaduct is a type of bridge composed of several spans of platform, creating arches when connected.

5. Surrounding Areas

6. Breaking Ground Construction on the Viaduct began in January 1915

7. Construction Begins From beginning to end the Bloor Street Viaduct (Later Prince Edward Viaduct) Took 3 years to complete construction. (1915-1918)

8. The Workers These pictures show the various men at work, clearly of a lower class and most likely immigrants as in In the Skin of a Lion.

9. Progress

10. Completion The Prince Edward Viaduct was opened in October 1918, after three years of construction.

11. Today In 1981, the bridge was dedicated to architect Edmund Burke, and construction engineer Thomas Taylor. No mention of Commissioner R. C. Harris who was able to get the bridge approved in the first place. Up to 2003, the viaduct was tragically notorious for having the second largest number of suicides off a standing structure in the world due to its low railing. In 2003, a protective barrier was added to the bridge called the “Luminous Veil.”