The Pony Truss Bridge
Until the 1960s, a traveler on Steeles Avenue (formerly known as Baseline) who wanted to cross the Credit River had to either turn south and cross down in Churchville, or head north and cross at Eldorado Mills. For most of the village’s history, there was no Steeles Avenue bridge. This enabled residents who lived north of Steeles, on the Chinguacousy Township side, to be connected with Churchville in a way that is almost impossible in modern times. The opening of the Steeles Avenue bridge has created a virtually impenetrable border between the two communities, but throughout the 19th, and most of the 20th centuries, families like the Bransbys, Ingrams, Snures, Kees, Huttons and Borgstroms considered themselves members of the Churchville community. The river crossings down in the village brought people, and their money, into the community.
For most of its history, the bridge was rust-red, not the green that we now associate it with.
Since its earliest years, Churchville has always been accessed from the south by a bridge located on the road between concessions 3 and 4, WHS. Richard Pointer, who owned land on the south side of the bridge, is noted as having either sold or donated ¼ of an acre to the Home District Council (precursor to Peel County) on November 29th, 1845, which may have been done to enable the regional government to take responsibility for this important crossing.
A winter image of the new bridge, looking southwest. You can see the steeple of St. Johns Anglican Church peaking above the trees.
Who were these three daredevils?
For most of the village’s first century the bridge was made of wood and was maintained by local residents who were then reimbursed by Toronto Township. Council minutes recorded that Meadowvale's Albert S. Lambe was paid $42.00 for conducting repairs on the wooden bridge at the south end of the village on May 28th, 1887. Two months later William Hardy, one of Churchville’s three local blacksmiths, was paid $14 by the Township for conducting his own repairs. Doubtless the wooden bridges were regularly damaged, or even washed away completely during spring flooding. In 1907 Toronto Township installed the single-span steel Warren pony truss bridge over the river. An open-top pony truss design was chosen to allow for men on horseback to easily cross. This bridge is still in place today.
A brand-new bridge, pictured in 1907.
The single-lane bridge is the focal point of the village and features in most of the pictures and stories that capture Churchville’s history. Originally painted rust red, it was only painted the green that we know now in the 1970s. It is 75 feet long and is made of steel hailing from a surprising number of steel mills, including Lackawanna, Dorman Long & Co (England), Carnegie and Jones & Laughlin. Though they are very hard to identify, each steel mill has a brand located somewhere around the structure. A smaller bridge of similar design was installed around the same time at Eldorado Mills, north of the village, but this was washed away during flooding and was replaced around 1928 with the historic bowstring bridge on Creditview Road.
Car crossing the similar steel bridge that once stood in front of Eldorado Mills, replaced in 1930 by the current bowstring bridge
The bridge has seen its fair share of flooding over the years, and actually contributed to the problem on many occasions by trapping the ice flow on the west side of the river. Some of the very worst recorded floods happened on April April 5th, 1950 (water levels rose 12 feet!) and between February 15th and March 2nd 1954, when early thaws resulted in water levels rising dramatically several times. Disaster struck again that October when Hurricane Hazel swept through the village. Other noted floods include March 7th, 1922, February 12th, 1932 (“one of the worst floods in village history”),
April 5th, 1950, when water levels on the Credit rose 12 feet.
On September 12th & 13th, 1992, the Churchville Cemetery Board erected a voluntary toll at the bridge in order to raise $3000 for much-needed repairs.
For almost all of its history, the bridge has handled two-way traffic, with the right-of-way given to drivers heading south. But when the municipal borders shifted in 1974 and Churchville became a part of Brampton, the new town council decided to make the bridge one-way for “safety reasons”. This led to an outcry in the village, as any northbound traffic was now required to take Creditview Road all the way around. In a Daily Times article, Alderman Al Ferri stated that it was a frustrating situation, since everyone in the village knew that there had only been “one minor accident” in the bridge’s long history. This situation seemed to reinforce Alderman Ferri’s skepticism about Churchville’s future in the new Town of Brampton. Tantalizing details of the minor accident were not divulged.
The bridge in the 1970s, while it was a one-way crossing.
In 1996 following several years of controlled access, the bridge's abutments desperately needed major repairs. The City of Brampton opted to remove the structure entirely in June and reinstall it at the end of August. Many in the village will remember the impressive spectacle of seeing a crane lift the entire bridge out and then back into place.
From the September 5th, 1996 edition of the Toronto Star.
The bridge persists as an icon of the village, connecting different generations within the community and serving to remind us of the important role that Churchville played in connecting Toronto Township to Chinguacousy Township and Brampton. Countless numbers of people, traveling on foot and horseback, on carriages, sleighs, tractors, cars, bicycles and trucks have paused midway across to gaze down at the river since the first crossing was built on that spot in the early 19th century.
The author's great-aunt, Phyllis Rollings, standing on the bridge in the 1920s.
An old, familiar view: looking north, with Golden's Store & Esso Station on the left and the Raines' barn far off to the right.
If you have memories of the bridge that you would like to share, we would love to hear them in the comment section below!