This shouldn't be too hard for any of you grumpy old men to figure out.. the city's long-lost underpasses have been bandied about in the comments here and here's a close-up of one of them that no longer exists. I don't know the official reason that they were removed but the image at the left suggests at least one reason.
Looks Like Sherbrooke and King Edward facing North across Sherbrooke from the park.
ReplyDeleteNever thought of the snow removal aspect.
We used to use this underpass to get to the park and listen to the streetcars thunder overhead.
So many years ago.
Thank You.
The city ought to re-introduce such underpasses at strategic places in the city--as London had decades ago. They do not have to be dank, dungeon-like catacombs, either as many unfortunately became, such as the one under Park Avenue at Duluth.
ReplyDeleteThe traffic has become so problematic here with pedestrians being injured and killed by distracted drivers, that this is a no-brainer.
Underpass for Trenholme park.
ReplyDeleteOn their YouTube channel, Archives de Montreal has a chunk from an ASN newsreel (Montreal: The City of Progress) on these underpasses.
Alot less scary then the melrose tunnel. Hated that tunnel as a teen. The new camera helps but many years later I still feel obliged to pick up the pace once down in the tunnel.
ReplyDeleteThat new camera they installed lasted about 3 months. It has been gone for years. I went through the Melrose tunnel on Halloween and somebody had decked it up with decorations and it didn't stink of urine.
ReplyDeleteI used to use the Melrose Tunnel when taking the 105 Sherbrooke to work and walked down Melrose from Sherbrooke to the rear of 5757 Upper Lachine, the Bell Garage.
ReplyDelete( There once was a Bell Garage at 375 River Street in Verdun, now gone, and the street has been renamed Gilbert Dube.
Rushbrooke was on the South, the former Verdun Industrial Complex was to the North, and May, with the CNR beyond to the East of the Bell property.
I used to walk THRU the VIC at night and catch the bus for Terminus Atwater on the North side.
The Verdun Industrial Complex had a history all it's own and was served by CNR from the North East under their main freight line to Victoria Bridge next to May.
Armchair 'Experts' always said something like 'Verdun is the largest City in Canada NOT served by a Railway.'
BUT, they did not know about the freight spurs into the VIC from the East crossing Butler.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19640702&id=WZotAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iZ4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=5869,348224
Above ad from 1964 mentions Rwy. Siding at VIC AND the-then new Champlain Bridge!!
Montreal Tramways handled freight and hauled fill into Verdun and dumped it along the waterfront.
Montreal Tramways ALSO Hauled CAKES of ICE from the River for the Ice Palace, but, I do NOT know if they came from Verdun. )
The-then 106 Upper Lachine passed the door, but did not run all that often late at night, and was a long walk from Harley and Elmhurst at Montreal West Station up to Fielding on a cold night in the rain.
Most of the time the lights were out in the Melrose tunnel and it ALWAYS smelled. Great place to get mugged.
I HATED IT!!
But, the choice was to walk around by Cavendish if the 106 was slow, then the BUS would roar past as you walked by the City Yards.
In the Melrose tunnel you could see in the concrete where the tunnel had been lengthened North when they pushed Western thru from Decarie to Coffee c. 1962, the South properties being demolished, those streets then dead-ending at the CPR on the South.
Pension IS better.
Time to go for a Mountain Bike ride.
Thank You.
I'm old enough to remember them and of how terrified I was whenever my mom and I had to use them. For a little kid of about 5, it was such a spooky experience with all the strange smells and the lurking shadows!
ReplyDeleteOver the many decades as the West End grew, one can only wonder how many holes were cut through that fence separating lower NDG from the railway tracks.
ReplyDeleteBefore Western Avenue was put through, just about every one of those north-south avenues was a dead end; some were very likely connected by laneways at their southern-most points until the end houses were demolished to make way for Western.
It is surprising, however, that Melrose ended up being the only one having an underpass enabling access, because there were definitely others proposed but which never came to be for various reasons.
There had been a couple of rickety wooden bridges over those tracks but when a locomotive engineer was killed after he leaned out too close to one of them, they were soon demolished. Today, of course, there is the very adequate bike-pedestrian walkover at the foot of Grand Blvd.
Back in the 1930s, there was a plan for one such underpass (referred to back then as "subways") just west of Benny Avenue as part of a park scheme. See The Gazette heading: "Drawing of Benny Subway..." for March 10, 1938, page 18, which includes a map.
An alternate suggestion called for such a "subway" to be at the foot of Belgrave Avenue. See The Gazette article on March 9, 1938, page 10, heading: "Warns N.D.G. Group Not To Fight Park".
It appears some "NIMBY" pressure group was attempting to turn the Benny Park/Subway plan into a political football (but then, doesn't almost EVERYTHING in this city?!).
I almost always use the Melrose underpass when I bike up from St-Henri (where I live now) on St-Jacques and then go through the streets of Notre-Dame-de-Grâces (where I grew up).
ReplyDeleteThe Grand boulevard overpass is a great place to take pictures of trains: http://emdx.org/rail/CP2816/photos/QC-CP-2716_20040530-121107_PasserelleGrand.jpg
(from http://emdx.org/rail/CP2816/4-PetitsVoyages.html)
When I took that picture, right next to me were a bunch of people shooting with an IMAX camera, but they had to contend with the fence links - luckily, the camera I had at the time had a small lens that fitted through the holes...
See The Gazette, March 4, 1938, page 18 for an interesting and informative article (including adjacent map of NDG) concerning the proposed park west of Benny Avenue and "vehicular subway" under the CPR tracks.
ReplyDeleteThe heading is: "Benny Farm Land Is Offered...". Mention is also made of the earlier bridges crossing the tracks at both Grand and Madison--later demolished due to safety concerns.
Even more interesting is another article a few columns to the right entitled: 'Purse-Snatchings Reported In NDG", about the "Dark Melrose Avenue Tunnel" and its notoriety!
As we all know, that 1938 Benny park/subway plan never materialized and it took nearly 20 years before that piece of land was opened up for Cavendish Blvd. and the underpass which was built in 1956 south of Sherbrooke St.
Another article on page 1 entitled "City Votes More Snow Cash" concerns the debate whether to purchase more snow removal equipment or continue the long-standing tradition of hiring gangs of the unemployed to clear the streets following snowstorms--and this over 10 years after Mr. Sicard had already sold his first famous snowblower to Outremont!
There was one I used to use running under Blvb. St. Laurent - over to Parc Jarry. Not sure of corss street, maybe Jarry, or Gounod or maybe Villeray. It was a long time ago and I lived in that area.
ReplyDeleteWe loved going through and screaming loud as we could to make a fantastic echo.
There's the pedestrian underpass connecting Broughton Ave. (the foot of Devil's Hill) with des Erables in Lachine.
ReplyDeleteI remember using one only once some decades ago around the St. Zotique-Esplanade industrial area under tracks which have since been removed.
I can't seem to find it today using Google maps, so I can only assume it was eliminated.
Does anyone recall exactly where it was?
Pedestrian Underpasses, etc. - Part One
ReplyDeleteEureka!
A little more detective work, including "zoom-analysis" of the relentlessly fascinating 1947 Montreal aerial map, has revealed the exact location of the former St. Zotique West pedestrian underpass I referred to earlier and located within the Mile-Ex, Marconi-Alexandra districts to the west of Little Italy.
For those who care to know about such admittedly prosiac details, see it here:
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P14-31.jpg
...under the north-south running CPR tracks (subsequently removed circa the 1990s) about halfway down the map and just above the shadow cast by the water tower located on the west side of the tracks. Even the shadows cast by the southern side of the narrow underpass wall can be seen on full enlargement of the image.
Note that this section of St. Zotique West is paved east of the CPR tracks to St. Urbain, whereas west of the tracks it is still a dirt road ending at the access road of Park Avenue. It is unclear, however, whether or not vehicles travelling west along that unpaved section of St. Zotique intent on accessing northbound Park Avenue could actually make a legal right, northbound turn from that connecting access road. But, I digress.
It is certainly likely that, in addition to the ones graciously mentioned by other blog posters, there were many more such pedestrian underpasses in and around this and other railway lines jammed right up next to commercial and residential districts. Surely construction company and other municipal archives exist on dusty shelves awaiting discovery?
Upon viewing Google Maps, very little evidence remains today other than some green space and a few empty lots to indicate that there was even a north-south railway line at this point around St. Zotique West as the tracks and adjacent properties were later replaced by new buildings so well blended into the previously existing ones that upon first glace you would think they had always been there. However, a quick check through vintage Lovell's directories clearly reveals the address gaps which have since been filled by more recent commercial and industrial establishments.
I only actually used the St. Zotique underpass once during an urban cycling ride and when I returned some years later to again seek it out, I was confounded by its disappearance, even wondering if I had only dreamed of its very existence in the first place!
As a child in the 1950s, I'd use teh St. Zotique underpass with my sisters to walk all the way to where our grandparents lived on St. Denis. I never saw any evidence of a way cars could go through, and we really had fun looking for other ways to get by those tracks.
DeleteNice memories to nurture, Claudia. Do you recall stories of a trespassers being hit by trains during that era, as holes would routinely be cut through fences--as they still are today, of course. No doubt you and your friends would be enthralled by the steam locomotives chuffing through there back in the day.
DeletePedestrian Underpasses, etc. - Part Two
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, for those data-hungry railfans who may not already be aware, that aforementioned abandoned track had once been a vital rail connection originally built by the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, and Occidental Railway which in 1882 was purchased by the CPR.
These tracks eventually fell into disuse despite the prior existence of the West Junction/Breslay passenger station I believe was accessed from the end of Beaumont Avenue. The line originated from Viger Station, continuing northward to the Bordeaux District and later into Laval and northwards as the need arose. Further details can be found on page 18 through 30 in the informative 100-page booklet entitled "Montreal Island Railway Stations: CP & Constituent Companies" published in 1996 by Michael Leduc (nice work, Michael, if you are reading this) Catalog number ISBN 0-9698705-1-5. (There is a companion book for CNR, et al).
I have also discovered an exact opposite transformation: the unusual aberration where the Des Erables Avenue, Ville St. Pierre (since merged with Lachine) vehicular level crossing was later converted into a pedestrian-only underpass between Duranceau Avenue and Emile-Pominville (formerly named 2nd Avenue). Exactly why and on what date this occurred I have yet to determine, but presumably it was sometime during early 1960s after the original CN line was abandoned in 1961; the tracks removed and covered over by Victoria Street in Lachine. A seldom-used segment of the old line still exists, ending at 10th Avenue.
See the former Des Erables-CNR level crossing near centre page here:
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P12-08.jpg
Perhaps too many tragic accidents created an uproar by the locals or there was the predictable (and still ongoing) demand by the neighbouring Town of Montreal West to prevent "riff-raff" working-class traffic from "annoying its elite residents" atop Devil's Hill?
Photos of this underpass can be seen at the bottom of the following webpage: https://neath.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/kirkpatrick-park-ville-saint-pierre/
One wonders how many muggings and other outrages have occurred within since it was built? Hopefully, those in-the-know can enlighten us?
Update: The Montreal Gazette for April 15, 1961, page 4 top left column entitled “On and Off the Record” states “…In Ville St. Pierre proper, the level crossing on Maple Street [Des Erables] is reported about to be closed, but this is with confirmation.”.
ReplyDeleteIf and when further specifics are discovered, I will report them in this blog.
The pedestrian underpass near Jarry Park mentioned by blog poster Lauriate Roly was at Jarry and Gounod.
ReplyDeleteOn the 1947 aerial map the eastern entrance can be seen on the southeastern corner with Jarry and the western parkside entrance was approximately where the flagpoles are today.
See the map here and click it to full size:
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P16-32.jpg
No surprise that pedestrian underpasses elsewhere can become a problem:
ReplyDeleteSee: https://ca.yahoo.com/news/creepy-pedestrian-tunnel-under-macleod-020217113.html
Article dated Jan. 19, 2018