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<\/p>\nThe Bloor-Danforth line turned 50 today.<\/p>\n
Five decades ago, on February 25, 1966, the first section\u00a0of Toronto’s first east-west subway opened between Keele and Woodbine stations. Representatives from four levels of government\u2014city, Metro, provincial, and federal\u2014were on hand that day to throw a\u00a0ceremonial switch and\u00a0inaugurate the third new subway line for Toronto in 12 years.<\/p>\n
The architecture and interior design of the Bloor-Danforth line firmly reflected the style of the 1960s.\u00a0Toronto City Hall and Yorkville Shopping Centre were less than a year old, and the shining black towers of TD Centre on Bay Street were\u00a0nearing\u00a0completion.<\/p>\n
Though there have been numerous changes and tweaks to the buildings and structures of the line since opening day, many of its modernist highlights remain intact.<\/p>\n
The Rosedale Valley Bridge is one of them.<\/p>\n
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One of the biggest challenges\u00a0faced by the subway’s\u00a0engineers was how to connect the Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue sections of the line. Two significant barriers\u2014the Rosedale and Don valleys\u2014stood in the way.<\/p>\n
The TTC investigated various options, including tunnelling all the way to the east end, but ultimately chose to use the existing lower deck of the Prince Edward Viaduct<\/a>.<\/p>\n Built at a cost of $90,000 during construction of the bridge in the 1910s, the lower level was designed\u00a0to carry streetcars at a time when\u00a0the city was planning underground\u00a0lines across the city. Ultimately, the deck sat dormant for more than 40 years before the TTC converted it for subway use.<\/p>\n In all, using the Prince Edward Viaduct cut\u00a0$10 million off the cost of building the Bloor-Danforth line.<\/p>\n Though there was also\u00a0a\u00a0viable subway deck on the Rosedale portion of the Prince Edward Viaduct, the TTC found\u00a0it\u00a0didn’t quite line up with the planned location of Sherbourne station, so a new bridge was required.<\/p>\n The solution, supplied by architect John B. Parkin and U.S. engineering firm DeLeuw, Cather & Co., was an open spandrel structure with\u00a0a sweeping reinforced concrete arch. The deck, almost 17 metres above the valley floor, was almost entirely enclosed\u00a0to prevent train noise disturbing residents of the nearby Kensington Apartments.<\/p>\n In 1968, city controller Allan Lamport said\u00a0the builders\u00a0of the apartments\u2014the Samuel Bronfman family\u2014had pressured the TTC into finding ways to reduce noise with the design of the bridge, which may have resulted in the\u00a0roof being added.<\/p>\n “If you know who the building belonged to, you’d know how the pressure was put on,”Lamport said.<\/p>\n Two rows of skylights provided\u00a0ventilation through the roof of the bridge, but were later covered.\u00a0Now\u00a0it’s hard for subway riders to discern that they’re traveling high above a ravine, save for an increase in noise as the train rumbles along its concrete guideway.<\/p>\n Just east of the Rosedale Valley Bridge, spacey Castle Frank\u00a0stands out among the other Bloor-Danforth station\u00a0buildings. Set in leafy surroundings in south Rosedale, an airy, glass-walled bus loading area connects\u00a0to a simple brick structure topped by\u00a0an unusual plastic dome.<\/p>\n Possibly because of its swanky location, the TTC approved several cute design flourishes at Castle Frank. Over the street from the main entrance, for example, a potentially unsightly ventilation shaft was tweaked\u00a0to incorporate\u00a0circular bench.<\/p>\n In 1965, the Coupler<\/em>, the TTC’s internal magazine, said the station\u00a0was “attractively designed to suit the neighbourhood in which it is located.”<\/p>\n The original western terminus of the line, Keele station, was another\u00a0a joint project between John B. Parkin and\u00a0DeLeuw, Cather & Co.<\/p>\n Here, the designers conceived\u00a0a tough-looking raised\u00a0enclosure clad in ribbed concrete. The textured exterior softened the impact of the concrete box, which straddled two streets.<\/p>\n Keele also\u00a0contained a Canadian first\u2014a “speed ramp” escalator.<\/p>\n The moving walkway shuttled streetcar passengers from\u00a0a temporary streetcar loop on Indian Grove up a 30-metre incline into the station. The Stephens-Adamson Manufacturing Company of Canada, which supplied\u00a0the device, claimed it could handle 72,000 passengers an hour at capacity.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the pedestrian conveyor never had a chance to fulfil its potential.<\/p>\n The TTC closed the temporary streetcar loop and sealed off the walkway\u00a0in 1968 when the Bloor-Danforth extensions\u00a0to Islington and Warden opened.<\/p>\n An anonymous grey door just inside the automatic entrance on Indian Grove and an indented section of wall on the subway platform\u00a0are the only hints of the closed\u00a0passageway.<\/p>\n Woodbine, which was\u00a0for two years the\u00a0eastern terminus of the east-west subway, also has a closed off passageway between its former\u00a0streetcar loop and the interior of the station, but this one only ever contained a stairway and corridor.<\/p>\n (Although streetcar service left Woodbine\u00a0five decades ago,\u00a0a short section track is still in place on Strathmore Blvd. and Cedarvale Ave.)<\/p>\n Underground throughout the line,\u00a0architects John B. Parkin and A. G. Keith delivered\u00a0a cohesive interior design that referenced\u00a0Parkin’s earlier work on the Yonge line.<\/p>\n Using the halfway point between St. George\u00a0and Bay\u00a0stations as a\u00a0centre point, the platform wall tiles repeated through a cycle of five colours: yellow, grey, beige, white, and green (assuming the traveler was\u00a0headed east or west, away from downtown.)<\/p>\n Using just\u00a0four trim colours\u2014black, blue, green, and maroon\u2014ensured no two stations were identical<\/a>.<\/p>\n Interiors were sparse with\u00a0little ornamentation. On the surface, many of ticket halls were\u00a0simple pavilions with extensive glass walls and illuminated white roofs. At night, they glowed like beacons.<\/p>\n Parkin knew the importance making subways appealing.<\/p>\n A year after winning the contract to design the stations on the Bloor-Danforth\u00a0line, the renowned architect\u00a0slammed the overall design quality of Canadian\u00a0transit\u00a0systems at a conference in Banff in 1960.<\/p>\n According to the Globe and Mail<\/em>, Parkin said\u00a0rolling stock colours were unimaginative, trademarks illegible, and signs indifferently designed. He excepted the\u00a0Toronto system, which he had a hand in crafting.<\/p>\n Parkin believed desirable\u00a0public transit\u00a0was key to combating urban sprawl and coaxing\u00a0people out of their cars. The buildings he designed on Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue were bright, clean, and inviting.<\/p>\n Even the signage was on point: Station names were printed clearly over the doors and\u00a0a new illuminated TTC subway insignia was deployed\u00a0near the main entrance\u00a0and on nearby streets to guide riders.<\/p>\n![\"toronto](\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/02\/20160218-BloorDanforth-RosedaleInt.jpg\")
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