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Lost Bridge: 4th Line at Sixteen Mile Creek

Why did Mississauga lose the land between the 407 and Steeles anyway? I always wondered why our northern border wasn't Steeles like Toronto's.

Probably because the (then proposed) 407 made for a more emphatic border, and whatever (residential, especially) development north of the 407 answered more to Brampton, anyway...
 
I thought the QEW followed the course of 'Middle Road' - at least in Oakville.

It was actually in Peel and Halton that the QEW took over the course of a road called "Middle Road". There's a closed bow string arch bridge over Etobicoke Creek just north of the QEW bridge that, for the last few years of its use in the road system, was on what's now called Sherway Drive. When it was built in 1908, it was called Middle Road Bridge, and was an important route back and forth between Toronto and Hamilton. You can also find old photos of the half of the existing QEW bridge over Twelve Mile Creek prior to its being assumed by the QEW, referring to it as Middle Road Bridge.
 
Probably because the (then proposed) 407 made for a more emphatic border, and whatever (residential, especially) development north of the 407 answered more to Brampton, anyway...

I'm not exactly sure what the reason was; Steeles seems like a perfectly obvious border to me, and a hydro corridor less so, but they changed it anyway. I don't think the maybe-maybe not 407 would have been a deciding factor in 1974, but I suppose it's possible that they transferred the land north of the hydro corridor to Brampton knowing it would grow more slowly than Mississauga and put less pressure on the land where the 407 might (and eventually did) go through.
 
I'm not exactly sure what the reason was; Steeles seems like a perfectly obvious border to me, and a hydro corridor less so, but they changed it anyway.

I think the "more emphatic border" related to long-term development/zoning issues rather than geographic issues; otherwise, it would've been awkward for the residential stuff south of Steeles to belong to Mississauga, much as it would have been awkward for the residential stuff west of Winston Churchill to belong to Oakville. (IOW, by the time we got to the Bill Davis era of regional government, the fine science of Urban Planning was determining political boundaries.)
 
It was actually in Peel and Halton that the QEW took over the course of a road called "Middle Road". There's a closed bow string arch bridge over Etobicoke Creek just north of the QEW bridge that, for the last few years of its use in the road system, was on what's now called Sherway Drive. When it was built in 1908, it was called Middle Road Bridge, and was an important route back and forth between Toronto and Hamilton. You can also find old photos of the half of the existing QEW bridge over Twelve Mile Creek prior to its being assumed by the QEW, referring to it as Middle Road Bridge.

The Middle Road--the original name for the QEW.
 
I used to love driving that chunk of 4th Line - very exciting going up or down the cut into the north bank of the creek especially. It's quite sad that these dangerous and fun bits of old road are getting farther and farther away. There are other fun roads remaining out there, like the Rattlesnake Point switchbacks, but I don't think we have hardly enough of them.

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The Lower Baseline one lane bridge is an interesting one (Between 5 Line and 6 Line). I haven't been there in over a year though. Does anyone know when the new 2 lane bridge will be open? or has it been opened to traffic already?
 
The Lower Baseline one lane bridge is an interesting one (Between 5 Line and 6 Line). I haven't been there in over a year though. Does anyone know when the new 2 lane bridge will be open? or has it been opened to traffic already?

I've been wondering that myself. I was out there in May and the place was all ripped up. I had understood them to expect the road to reopen in the fall, so my guess is it's a going concern again. I'll be curious to see if the old bridge has been kept as a pedestrian and fishing platform. Makes me wish I weren't busy next weekend! A quick nip out there would be nice.
 
I've been wondering that myself. I was out there in May and the place was all ripped up. I had understood them to expect the road to reopen in the fall, so my guess is it's a going concern again. I'll be curious to see if the old bridge has been kept as a pedestrian and fishing platform. Makes me wish I weren't busy next weekend! A quick nip out there would be nice.

I agree, they might as well keep the old bridge. It would be an awesome place to fish!
 
The stretch of the road west of Ninth Line was, and remains, called Lower Base Line Road, to differentiate it from Upper Base Line Road--which, ironically, is south of Lower Base Line Road, and would be the course of the QEW if it didn't turn southward in the vicinity of Ninth Line (where the Ford plant is).

The street sign on the west side of the Ninth Line-Eglinton intersection has "Eglinton Ave W" as the primary sign and "Formerly Lower Base Line" underneath it. It reverts to Lower Base Line at the revised Halton-Peel boundary.
 
The street sign on the west side of the Ninth Line-Eglinton intersection has "Eglinton Ave W" as the primary sign and "Formerly Lower Base Line" underneath it. It reverts to Lower Base Line at the revised Halton-Peel boundary.

I don't know if it's changed recently, but a street-level view of the intersection does show the correct nomenclature on either side of the municipal boundary. The road is still called Lower Baseline in Halton. It's possible that may change as the area west of Ninth Line becomes more suburban.
 
I don't know if it's changed recently, but a street-level view of the intersection does show the correct nomenclature on either side of the municipal boundary. The road is still called Lower Baseline in Halton. It's possible that may change as the area west of Ninth Line becomes more suburban.

It has changed since the Google photo. If I'm out that way I'll try to grab a current photo. The question then becomes how long do they normally leave the notifications of former street names up at intersections. I remember the "VIA ITALIA - Formerly Elmwood Ave." was up for many years, but in this case it could be a shorter time since there isn't much around on the west side of Ninth Line.
 
It has changed since the Google photo. If I'm out that way I'll try to grab a current photo. The question then becomes how long do they normally leave the notifications of former street names up at intersections. I remember the "VIA ITALIA - Formerly Elmwood Ave." was up for many years, but in this case it could be a shorter time since there isn't much around on the west side of Ninth Line.

It's hard to make sense out of that signage. In Mississauga, Eglinton Avenue was called Base Line Road till the early 70s. There was no "lower" in the name. It can't signify a name change in Halton, because if it did, it would be Eglinton Avenue East west of Ninth Line, just as Eglinton Ave. E. in Mississauga is west of Eglinton Ave. W. in Etobicoke. The one possibility is that the sign represents the name of the road in the part of Halton subsumed by Peel in 1974... but to wait nearly 40 years to help people sort that out seems more likely to confuse them. I lived in that part of Mississauga for 16 years, and even west of Winston Churchill, it wasn't called Lower Baseline Road... not till you reached Ninth Line, anyway.
 
I agree, they might as well keep the old bridge. It would be an awesome place to fish!

Well, for what it's worth, I drove the new bridge on Lower Base Line this weekend and no, the old bridge was not preserved. At some point last summer, they removed it. Was sad to see that as I drove by, but at least I got shots of it and video of driving across it while it still existed.
 
Oh, and more to the point of THIS thread -- the road bridge on 4th Line at East Sixteen Mile Creek is indeed gone now, and has been replaced by a high, arching pedestrian bridge. Seems Oakville and Milton really did decide that that was that for crossing the river there. In a decade or so, there'll be a new major crossing about a kilometre east where James Snow Parkway will come down to meet Neyagawa Blvd at the 407. The construction of that will be something to chronicle! :)
 

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