*FEATUREDTHAT WAS THEN

When building transit was simpler at Mt. Pleasant and Eglinton

This is not the first time the Mt. Pleasant Road and Eglinton Avenue East intersection has been a construction site for a new transit line. For that we have to go back to 1925.

Of course, when the Mt. Pleasant Road Loop was being built nearly 94 years ago, the work didn’t cause massive traffic jams as the building of the Eglinton Crosstown line does now.

The photo from Oct. 20, 1925 shows the intersection was at that time on the northern fringe of the city, with houses along Eglinton just having been built. No sign is seen of pedestrian or vehicular traffic backed up in the rush across midtown Toronto as today.

Story continues below ad
Loop replaced by underground track.
NOW: The new track is being laid underground, looking east from Mt. Pleasant Road on Eglinton Avenue East in this photo.

The Mt. Pleasant Road Loop, also known as the Eglinton Loop, was at the north end of a streetcar line that ran on the east end of St. Clair Avenue from the subway station and then from the St. Clair Loop at Mt. Pleasant north to Eglinton.

Streetcars rode the rails on Mt. Pleasant until 1976 when rebuilding of the bridge south of Merton Street brought the end of this mode of transit on Mt. Pleasant.

Later the east end of the St. Clair streetcar line was also discontinued.

Buses now ply their routes up Mt. Pleasant. That is, if they can get past the construction at Eglinton.

When construction is completed, an underground station for the Crosstown line will located at the intersection with entrances on the northwest and northeast corners. The station will incorporate the building currently on the northwest corner, the former Second Cup cafe site.

The station will also serve as connections for local buses.

M. Pleasant loop now a maze.
NOW (ABOVEGROUND): Vehicles and pedestrians have to navigate confusing routes to cross the Mt. Pleasant and Eglinton intersection while construction continues.