I really wish that no ugly mesh fencing goes up like it did at the bridge at CityPlace. Ruins any photographic opportunities, and is, in my view, completely unnecessary. It's never really been a problem in Toronto, and there are many other bridges, like Bathurst and Spadina, that are open to pedestrians yet not given the same treatment.
I've crossed the Bridge Over Troubled Train Tracks many times, and never consciously realized the mesh Shon mentions, but found this pic which clearly shows it. I see what you mean:
(Derek Flack)
(Della Rollins for the Globe and Mail)
(Della Rollins for the Globe and Mail)
(Della Rollins for the Globe and Mail)
That is pretty awful. Perhaps they had extra material left over from Maplehurst Correctional Complex? Perhaps it's to collect pollution and blacken with age to give it a genuine industrial grit in no time flat?
I can understand the need for security from throwing or thrown objects in either direction, but after spending what they have for that structure? *Surely* they can find something less garish (and garish is too mild a word) for the finer meshing?
Even in the US, bridges over electrification have this mesh as well from the few I have seen.
I've just been looking a number more over pending electrification routes, none of them seem as garish as this. I'm going to take a closer look at it next time I'm down there, as compared to the Weston John St Bridge, it's a magnitude of ugly greater:
[...][I had thought that there was rather too much fencing Up close, though, it
![](http://www.westonweb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-10-29-12.06.42-1-300x225.jpg)
works: the fencing is attractive stainless wire. It looks great.] (Pic by Adam Norman)
[...]
http://www.westonweb.ca/tag/john-street-bridge/
Now I view the rise rate and unbroken flight of steps as seen in this pic at John Street, I'd have to say there's a distinct possibility this doesn't meet design code:
[The steps are actually kind of fun; on the John Street side, they are steeply pitched. My kids loved it, and they were actually a bit scared. The auditorium staircase, with much larger steps, is pretty great too.]
"My kids loved it, and they were actually a bit scared." They should be....that pitch and lack of landings is awful accidents waiting to happen. Add a bit of ice, and bingo. That is actually a concern on the Wallace Ave bridge too. It's one thing to go down a couple of steps in an accident, go down them all and chances are you'll never be the same. The City assuming liability is one of the issues that kept the bridge from opening.
(
Adam Norman)