St. Clair Viaduct

The St. Clair Viaduct was built in 1924 & renovated 1985. It replaced the previous steel
bridge built in 1890 which crossed the valley from Pleasant Boulevard to St. Clair, where
you can see a small bit of park at south-east comer of this present bridge. The wrought
iron railings from the old bridge were reused in the fence on the east side of Avoca Ave.
The picture below shows this bridge under construction with the older iron bridge still in
use.

This bridge is a good spot to appreciate our ravines and look at two different stands of
trees from above. Looking north, to our right (east) we see a good stand of of White &
Red Oak, Basswood Ash, White Pine, Beech, Black Cherry, & Hemlock. To our left
(west) is a flawed new growth forest, largely of exotics, including Norway Maple, Crack
Willow, Horse Chestnut, Mulberry & Black Locust. The two prominent native tree
species are Manitoba & Silver Maples, which while they have a role in the forest are not
normally as dominant as they are here. Some authorities class Manitoba Maple as an
invasive exotic. The vigorous presence of Norway Maple, a invasive exotic, in this and
many other ravines is very troublesome. The City has several projects to remove some
undesirable exotics and encourage native trees. One such project may be observed
south of here on the west side of this ravine near the CPR bridge. The better forest can be
closely observed along the trail on the east side of the stream and the flawed exotic stand
along the west side trail.

Accordion to an old map, a sawmill was located a bit north of this bridge with its mill
pond stretching back into what is now the cemetery.