cherry beach

Toronto beach now inaccessible by transit due to broken bridge and people are trolling the TTC

A very broken bridge in Toronto's Port Lands is causing quite the headache for residents, who have been unable to properly access their local beach for the better part of a month.

The nearly 100-year-old Cherry Street Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge spanning the ship channel just north of Cherry Beach unfortunately got jammed in its upright position in late April, and has been briefly in, but mostly out of service ever since.

As workers assess and attempt to repair the hardware damage that is causing the issue, unknowing visitors have been baffled to find the artery to the water completely inaccessible, and have not been shy in expressing their frustrations about it over the last few weeks as they try to enjoy the newly-arrived summer weather.

And, a tweet from the TTC advising people of resulting service impacts to its Cherry Beach route has prompted even more snarky comments to roll in.

"Looking to head to Cherry Beach? 202 Cherry Beach buses are detouring until late June due to bridge construction and will not service Cherry Beach," the transit agency wrote on X on Tuesday along with a link to a page detailing a temporary route change.

Though people are acknowledging that the bridge problem — which has to do with damage to the structure's lift mechanism and main shaft — is completely out of the commission's control, netizens are still finding the PSA a tad peculiar.

"Looking to head to Cherry Beach? Don't. What a culture we have here in ToroNO," one person wrote, while another joked "Wanna go to the beach? Yeah, well, you can't, soo..."

"I don't blame the TTC for not being able to provide bus service to Cherry Beach (you're not going to get a bus across the Unwin Bailey Bridge). But this is still a ridiculous message," one person wrote. And still another said, simply, "this is too funny."

With the latest update from PortsToronto on May 13 saying that fixes to the bridge will take multiple weeks, TTC riders can expect the Cherry Beach line to continue diverting both ways via Commissioners Street, Carlaw Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard for the foreseeable future.

"Cherry Street will remain closed for vehicular and pedestrian traffic south of Polson Street. Members of the public and all Port users can still use Unwin Avenue (base of Leslie Street) to access the Port and Cherry Beach," PortsToronto has said.

"Structural analysis on the damaged main shaft and lifting mechanism is complete. Sourcing of supplies and parts for the repair has begun... during this work, the bridge will remain in the upright position for safety reasons. We will continue to provide updates on the repair as details become available."

Lead photo by

Marcanadian/Flickr


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