Historical Winnipeg discussion

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by esquire

Looking at those great historic photos makes me wonder... considering its proximity to downtown Winnipeg, why did North St. B not evolve into a grander urban neighbourhood? At first I thought perhaps it was too flood-prone, but then Provencher and the areas to the south aren't much different and they were built up to a pretty nice standard.

I totally agree. St. Boniface never seemed to succeed or prosper. To have the grand college, church and city hall.. it just kind of stagnated after that. I think tourists are woefully under impressed when this city leads them to this "French quarter".

[Urban recluse]

Winnipeg as a whole never became the great metropolis as predicted at the turn of the last century. What could have been...

[1ajs]

we layed out a city for genirations to add to we somewhere lost our vision

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by Roger Strong

Dunno what those pilings are from, just south of the old St. Boniface bridge piers. Possibly they're from the first St. Boniface bridge, which was carried away by ice a couple days after it opened. Or they may be for upstream piers used to break up the ice before they hit the later bridge.

They are definitely the piers from the old Broadway to Provencher bridge. The current footbridge now sits on that footprint.

Originally Posted by Roger Strong

I have pictures taken from a distance in 2003 if anyone wants them, but they're not too interesting. Plus construction pictures of the footbridge, which are a tad more interesting.

I'd love to see you post them here.

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by TimeFadesAway

They are definitely the piers from the old Broadway to Provencher bridge. The current footbridge now sits on that footprint.
.

nope
when the river is low u can see where they sat in the current

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

nope
when the river is low u can see where they sat in the current

The current footbridge definitely sits on the footprint of the old Broadway to Provencher bridge. In fact I think you can see the remains of the old piers in the image below, underneath the footbridge. (I think they're in the wrong place to be for the cofferdam used in the footbridge construction, but maybe they were for a temporary bridge used to take equipment to the cofferdam.)

The pilings to the right - which can be seen from above in the image on the previous page, just south/upstream of the old bridge piers - are for something else.

Possibly they're from the first St. Boniface bridge, which was carried away by ice a couple days after it opened. Or they may be for upstream piers used to break up the ice before they hit the later bridge.



And here are the remains of the old rail bridge to the north. If you zoom in you can see the pilings on the far shore and in the middle of the river.



I took both pictures on Dec 15, 2003. Consider them to be in the public domain.

[Urban recluse]

I can only imagine what being downtown was like back then. Sigh. To think that we ended up with the ugliest parkade where the grand post office stood is incredulous.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/951304...-SfpePL-Rfbk4i

[Shekelbender]

Seeing the river that low makes me wonder, what else is down there. Would love to see it drained for a day or 2

[Riverman]

The river can only go down as far as the sill of the St. Andrews dam.

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by Shekelbender

Seeing the river that low makes me wonder, what else is down there. Would love to see it drained for a day or 2

Or permanently.

Step 1: Redirect the entire Red River through the Winnipeg floodway, now that we've already paid to expand it. Same with the Seine. Redirect the Assiniboine River up the Portage Diversion, now that we've already paid to drain that basin. This will leave the city with lots of valuable, taxable new land, with a scenic little creek - from any creeks that emptied into the Assiniboine River east of the Portage Diversion.

Step 2: Create rapid mass transit routes north, south, west, and southeast from downtown, along the newly reclaimed land.

Step 3: Create parks along residential areas. Where needed, have water retention ponds to prevent flooding in rainstorms. Homes that had high taxes for being riverfront property will instead have high taxes for being beside parks, ponds and decent transit routes.

Step 4: Create a park at The Forks, to replace the one paved/built over in recent decades. Maybe this one will stay.

Step 5: Sell the remaining land. We'll get a lot of money for it when we sell it, and continuing revenue when we tax it. Lots of trees, park areas, a scenic little creek in some areas.... And decent transit service.

Step 6: Allow development along the floodway/river diversion. Plant lots of trees. Now that it's in use year round, the land is valuable waterfront property. Again, we'll get a lot of money for it when we sell it, and continuing revenue when we tax it.

Step 7: Allow the riverboats to cruise the floodway/river diversion. Or, they can be kept in place downtown when the river is drained, and turned in classy restaurants.

Step 8: Stop spending a fortune on new bridges.

Step 9: Have the person who wrote this locked up for his own good.

[Urban recluse]

Ohhhh, I like that.

[bomberjet]

Now you'd need to build a floodway for the floodway though haha seriously. Need to offset the capacity of the existing Red River channel somewhere else.

[bomberjet]

I remember fishing with my auntie on the river bank, in a little spot in St. Vital. The bank is lined with sandbags back from the 50's / 60's floods.

She noted a point in time, can't remember when, that the river was virtually empty. You could walk out really far and all that was there were fishing lines haha snags built up form many years. Well not all that was there. But the water was super low.

[Riverman]

The water can get pretty low in south Winnipeg in the winter if inflows are low enough.

[1ajs]

[Urban recluse]

I had no idea there were homes there. Nice.

[Roger Strong]

Some more Provencher footbridge construction photos from 2003.

All photos are by me. I accept that this web site probably has some Terms of Service rules regarding the photos that will probably upset me.

[bomberjet]

Wow, fantastic photos!! My engineering nerd self loves seeing all that stuff.

[Cyro]

Nice set of photos, takes me back quite some time to it's construction.

[Roger Strong]

Does anyone want some to see early True North Arena construction photos from the same time?

(Includes the Metropolitan Theatre from a block west, without the arena or Eaton's in the way.)