A sky walker's guide to the aerial walkways of Toronto
Toronto never really embraced the aerial walkway. In fact, it's been official city policy for decades to discourage and even suggest the dismantling of such structures.
While Calgary developed the world's largest network of overhead pedestrian bridges, a kind of aerial version of Toronto's PATH network, this city for the most part kept its feet on the ground.
That said, the city did briefly flirt with the idea of vertically separated streets as evidenced by the walkway around the edge of Nathan Phillips Square.
In the 1960s, urban planners generally thought that cars, pedestrians, and public transit should be kept apart, and complex networks of bridges and tunnels were planned in urban centres across the continent.
Despite the city's plans, Toronto has allowed a few pedestrian walkways to be built. These are my some of favourite ones scattered around Toronto.
Eaton Centre
Built during construction of the second phase of the Eaton Centre, the walkway between Simpsons department store and Toronto's downtown mall was supported by two giant steel girders 30 and 35 metres long.
It took about three hours to crane the frame of the structure into place in September, 1978. A major renovation was completed in recent years, to the delight of every Instagram influencer.
St. Michael's Hospital
One addition to Toronto's aerial footpath scene connects the main St. Michael's Hospital building and the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute on the opposite side of Shuter St.
The bridge is about 18 metres long and four metres in diameter and was made in Germany by Gartner Steel and Glass, shipped to New York, and trucked to Toronto before being hoisted into place on October 23, 2010.
Canada Life
Hidden down the back of the Canada Life building on University, a two-tier bridge over Simcoe St. connects the insurance company's famous headquarters to a 10-storey addition that was completed in 1971 to designs by architectural firm Marani, Rounthwaite & Dick. The brutalist walkway is one of the city's oldest such structures.
Yorkdale Shopping Centre
In an effort to keep pedestrians off nearby streets, in 1978 the city built a pedestrian walkway between the subway station and shopping centre at Yorkdale. Starting under the Allen, the structure passes over Yorkdale Rd. and enters the mall parking lot via the GO bus terminal.
The SkyWalk
The aptly-named pedestrian walkway was completed in 1989 in the hopes that it would discourage people from driving to the ball park.
Plans to build rapid transit in that direction never materialized, and the SkyWalk promised to help mitigate issues with crowd control.
Ryerson University
The city was initially against the idea of an elevated pedestrian walkway here, claiming it would kill the street life on Church.
In protest, a 1,000 Ryerson students crossed Church en masse to illustrate the crowd control issues that could arise if the bridge remained unbuilt. Eventually, it was concern over the safety of wheelchair users that turned the tide in favour of the bridge.
SickKids
The impressive walkway over Elizabeth St. was completed in 1993 to designs by the Zeidler Roberts Partnership, making it a kind of sibling to the Eaton Centre bridge.
The design of the atrium represented a significant architectural departure for SickKids: the light-filled structure eschewed the standard institutional look of other hospitals for indoor fountains and trees.
Jesse Milns. Written by Chris Bateman.
Latest Videos
Latest Videos
Join the conversation Load comments
