Monday, May 23, 2022

Overgrown


(Click on images to view at full size and resolution.)

This is a shot of the wooded area at the north end of Hurdman Park, north of the transit station, taken in late 2020. We're looking towards the Queensway, along a path that's a favoured haunt for those who enjoy feeding the nuthatches and chickadees that live in the area pretty much year-round.

Curiously, this stretch of path is all that remains of part of the north end of "old" Riverside Drive. Consider this aerial comparison. In the upper image (2019) i've drawn a yellow oval around that part of the woods where the path runs.

The lower image (1928) shows what was then Riverside Drive (then just a dirt road) running to the east of the old Hurdman farmstead.

Here's the Old Riverside Drive (yellow arrows) on a 1906 top map (detail.) In fact, this roadway appears at least as far back as H. F. Walling's 1863 map of the area.

The now-overgrown section of Riverside Drive was cut off from traffic when the Queensway bridge was opened in the 1960s. The section south of Hurdman Station was repurposed as bus transitway. 

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