Concrete bridge over Humber River, Toronto

My son has just sent me your web site because of this picture of "my" bridge. It crossed the Humber River in Weston,on St Philip's Road (now Humber Street) and I grew up along the Humber about a stone's throw upstream, so knew it well. (I just painted almost an identical picture of this last year !!) Weston is on the left and Etobicoke on the right, this view looks downstream. The eastern (right) approach to the bridge was washed out completely during Hurricane Hazel, the bridge was in poor shape (not the structure, the railings) by this time, and it was replaced in the early sixties, I believe. The village of Weston was first built on the east bank of the river, at this site, where the Wadsworth Mill was located. After floods in the 1850's, the village was moved to the higher west bank and downstream about a mile. Thank you for this most interesting web site .MJA

The photo may be from a collection of images from 1915 but the image of the Wadsworth Arch Bridge was taken in 1910 when the bridge was constructed. At the time of construction the bridge was described in the local newspaper (the Times and Guide) as the longest concrete bridge in Canada. This honour clearly didn't last long. By the way the 1910 bridge only spanned about half the width of the Humber River which is why it angles downwards. The bridge was met my a winding road and smaller bridge over a mill race before the road continued up the Etobicoke side of the river. Following up on Mary Jane Asselstine's comments, she is correct with most of her observations, but it was the approach to the west side of the bridge that was washed away during Hurricane Hazel (the Etobicoke side). The approach to the east side and the bridge itself fully withstood the flooding of Hurricane Hazel and was restored after the hurricane. The bridge continued to serve the community until 1968 when it was demolished to make way for a longer, wider bridge that could handle more traffic and heavier vehicles. That replacement bridge continues to stand, with some renovations done to it within the last twenty years. A few years ago someone returned a plaque that was salvaged from the 1910 bridge to the Weston Historical Society. As for the famous move of Weston in 1850, the great flood of that year may have made the community decide to abandon using the early settlement in the Humber Valley, but much of the development of Weston had already been taking place on the east side of the river for almost twenty years. For other images of the Wadsworth Arch Bridge and the plaque, images can be viewed at the Weston Historical Society page on Facebook.