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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

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5 comments

  1. Oui, peut-être dangereuse?

  2. Back in the sixties I could either take the 106 Upper Lachine bus, or the 105 Sherbrooke bus to get to work on Upper Lachine Road, or , if wanting the walk, could go up to the 104, or 103, or 102.

    Using the 105, as it usually had more service, was quickest, but involved transiting the Melrose Tunnel after walking down/up from/to from Sherbrooke.

    Most of the times the lights in the concrete of the ceiling of the tunnel were not functioning as the local vandals had trashed them.

    Another cold place in winter, with the wind.

    Definitely not fun at 10 PM at night, even before ‘drugs’ became a problem.

    Many drunks and bullys around, tho!

    Tunnel frequently used as a Public Urinal, but, for the most part, graffitti was still in the future with the developement of the paint spray can.

    Sometimes a Train would thunder over, giving a scare!

    Before De Maisonneuve was constructed in 1961, ( origionally called Western, as I recall, ) the streets between Girouard and Park Row West went South right down to the CPR.

    Some had to be demolished to make way for the new road parallel to the CPR.

    The Girouard underpass had to be lengthened Northward and used to bear the date 1961 on it’s Northern Portal becuase of that.

    Cavendish underpass built in 1956 with sidewalks from Charles Duranceau Ltee was lengthened, also.

    At one time Western was able to be driven direct from at least St Denis ?? ( I have forgotten! ) thru to Coffee/West Broadway, and was TWO-WAY! but, later, Westmount, who was against the whole thing anyway, ‘took back’ the Park east of Girouard.

    There were a complex set of traffic lights at Western/Cavendish to control traffic flowing to/from Cavendish/Western, as both feeders were also Two Way!

    Hoolihan Construction who did quite a lot of snow ploughing in NDG in the fifties, used to have their shop at the entrance to the Melrose Underpass on the North end.

    There used to be another public underpass at King Edward and Sherbrooke to access the park on the south side, and you could hear the streetcars rumble above until they came off in 1956.

  3. ou exactement ce tunnel se trouve-t-il?
    en continuité avec la rue melrose?

  4. Exactement – les entrés sont sur la rue Melrose des deux bords du chemin de fer (cul de sac au nord de Upper Lachine jusqu’au coté nord de de Maisonneuve).

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