Crosstown Expressway Interchange (Toronto, Ontario)

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In the 1950s the City of Toronto planned an extensive set of major expressways similar to the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) just to the east (right) of this point. The Crosstown Expressway was to have led westward from the DVP to connect to the Spadina Expressway and then continued to what is now Black Creek Drive (and the 400) on the western side of the city. The route would have followed the heavily wooded valley just to the west (left) of this point, and then along Dupont Street and Annette in a semi-buried cut. Although it is not obvious in this image, there is a large hill beside the interchange that would have been removed to provide access to the valley.

The four-lane highway immediately to the east of this location is all that was ever built of the Crosstown. Construction was underway but stopped as the city increasingly turned against building highways and eventually erupted into protest. Although only the Spadina Expressway remains part of the common knowledge, the Crosstown, Scarborough and Richview were all under construction at the time. When construction ended, this portion of the Crosstown was re-purposed into what it is today, a particularly over-built interchange for the DVP.