Can You Name the Top 10?
STEEP
STREETS - in the Beaches
If you live in the Beaches, you know we have steep
streets, but do you know why, and can you name the steepest?
We've done some research on this fascinating subject,
and put together a list of the 10 steepest streets in the Beaches.
1. Scarborough Rd. - around Queen St.
2. Silver Birch Ave. - most of the street
3. Glenmanor Dr - between Kingston Rd. and Beaufort Rd.
4. Lee Ave. - between Kingston Rd. and Juniper Ave.
5. Spruce Hill Rd. - around Sycamore Pl.
6. Balsam Ave. - between Pine Ave. and Sycamore Pl.
7. Glenmore Rd. - between Eastwood Ave. and Duvernet Ave.
8. Kingswood Rd.- around Queen St.
9. Waverley Rd. - between Kingston Rd. and Norway Ave.
10. Winthorpe Rd. - between Kingston Rd. and Glen Stewart Ave.
The
reason we always seem to be walking uphill is that the Beaches sits on top
of a huge bar of gravel and sand. This bar was created many thousands of years
ago by the glacial Lake Iroquois, which once covered what is now downtown
Toronto.
About 10,000 years ago, the waters of Lake Iroquois
receded to become Lake Ontario. This process exposed a clay plain on which
the city of Toronto now stands. As well, it uncovered the East Toronto bar,
which extends westward from the Scarborough Bluffs for almost 6.4 kilometres
and rises more than 56 metres above the lake. Kingston Road was built along
the top of the bar.
The Davenport bar is the other bar in Toronto, a little
smaller, it caused the present Humber River to flow due south.
Early
motorists often had a tough time getting up the hills in winter. To make a
little cash, children would collect the coal ashes which had been put out
for pickup by the city and sell them to drivers to place under their tires.
The step inclines were also a source of pleasure. Mrs.
Norman Keys, whose family moved to the Beaches in 1901, recalled the thrill
of sledding down Beech Avenue on home-made bob sleighs that held six or eight
riders. "They started above Pine and went down over Queen Street where
one person was stationed with a flag to warn of the rare on-coming street
car, down, almost to the club house."
Aknowledgment: The Changing Face of Toronto, by
Donald Kerr and Jacob Spelt.
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