Weekend Roundup

Welcome to The Weekend Roundup...hosted by Tom The Back Roads Traveler
Skywatch Friday
ABC Wednesday

1. Starts with "V."
2. A Favorite
3.  

For the letter of the week for this round I am going to go with all things TTC, Toronto Transit Corporation.

Starts with "V"

The Prince Edward Viaduct System, commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct, is the name of a truss arch bridge system that connects Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east. The Don Valley phase of the system, the most recognizable, spans the Don River Valley, crossing over (from west to east) the Bayview Avenue Extension, the Don River, and the Don Valley Parkway.

Photos taken at City Hall earlier this year.

The viaduct was designed to facilitate mass transit; its upper deck accommodated trams, while both the Don Valley phase and the Rosedale Valley phase included a lower deck for rail transport, controversial at the time because of its high additional cost. The bridge's designer and the commissioner of public works, R.C. Harris, were able to have their way and the lower deck eventually proved to save millions of dollars when the Toronto Transit Commission's Bloor–Danforth subway opened in 1966.

Taken aboard a subway train.

The roadway has five lanes (three eastbound and two westbound) with a bicycle lane in each direction. The subway level connects Broadview Station in the east with Castle Frank and Sherbourne Stations to the west.

Over time, the Prince Edward Viaduct became a magnet for suicide, falling bodies posing risk to the traffic underneath. With nearly 500 suicides by 2003, the viaduct ranked as the second most fatal standing structure in North America, after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. At its peak in 1997, the suicide rate averaged one person every 22 days. In 1957, a child also climbed onto the railing and fell accidentally while walking along it.


The suicides and safety risks prompted the construction of a barrier in 2003, though it was first approved by Toronto City Council in 1998 and delayed because of concerns about funding; during that time, the viaduct was the site of an estimated 48 to 60 suicides.


The barrier was called the Luminous Veil. Designed by architect Dereck Revington and engineers at Halcrow Yolles and completed in 2003, the Luminous Veil consists of over 9,000 steel rods, 12.7 cm apart and 5 m high, stretched to cantilevered girders.


A 2010 study found that though the barrier prevented suicide attempts from the Viaduct, overall rates of suicide by jumping for the city of Toronto have not changed since its construction.

Favourite

Vicinity

Each station has a vicinity map.

VAST

In the process of sorting through our vast number of photos from our recent trip to Spain.

On our drive to Valencia we saw vast fields of oranges.