Prince Edward Viaduct
truss arch bridge system in Toronto
The Prince Edward Viaduct System, commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct, is the name of a truss arch bridge system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, connecting Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east. The system includes the Rosedale Valley phase (a smaller structure, referred to as the Rosedale Valley Bridge, carrying Bloor Street over the Rosedale Ravine) and the Sherbourne Phase, an embankment built to extend Bloor Street East to the Rosedale Ravine from Sherbourne Street. The Don Valley phase of the system, the most recognizable, spans the Don River Valley, crossing over (from west to east), Bayview Avenue, the Don River, and the Don Valley Parkway.
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.
History
Referendums on the construction of the Prince Edward Viaduct were held in Toronto in every year from 1910 to 1913, with residents voting against its construction in 1912 by 59 votes and in favour in 1913 by 9236 votes. The projected cost of its construction increased from CA$759,000 in 1910 to CA$2.5 million in 1913; its final cost was CA$2,480,349.05 ($45.8 million in 2025 dollars). Upon its completion in 1918, it was named for Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII).
The viaduct was designed to facilitate public transit: Its upper deck originally carried the Bloor streetcar line, while both the Don Valley and the Rosedale Valley spans included a lower deck for a potential future underground rapid transit line; 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, which resulted in the abandonment of the Bloor streetcar (save for two short segments beyond the original ends of the subway line which closed two years later when it was extended).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Prince Edward Viaduct” is truss arch bridge system in Toronto. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Prince, Edward and Viaduct, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “truss arch bridge system in Toronto” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2110325. Authority coordinates are 43.675, -79.364. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1910, 1913, 1912 and 2025.
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This entry incorporates text from “Prince Edward Viaduct” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.