Of time and the river
The Don: salmon to sludge to concrete; in time, to life revived
Bebout, Rick
http://www.rbebout.com/queen/2pdon.htmPublisher: Rick Bebout
Date Written: 01/12/2001
Year Published: 2001
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX24180
A history of the Don River in Toronto and reflections on its relationship with the city and citizenship as a natural space, and its decline and renewal.
Abstract:
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Excerpts:
To know the Don, you must go down to the river. That wasn't always easy to do, but now there's a stairway at the Queen Street bridge, and a few other bridges beyond. Step down and you're in another place: more relaxed than the street (though you can still hear streetcars); its time slower, its space more expansive if gently bounded, the river riding calm between banks bushed and treed.
It's not entirely bucolic. In places those banks are steel retaining walls, driven deep to hold the river to a course made by man -- here dead straight. In others, even mid-river, it's concrete -- footing massive pillars holding expressway ramps high overhead. It can feel awe-ful, mysterious, vaguely unsettling. Even a bit creepy. Or -- as beauty more fearsome than cute has been called -- sublime.
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