This week Art in Action students looked at the form and structure of bridges. A bridge is a structure that allows people to travel across rivers and streams, canyons, other roads, and even to connect two island provinces together. Designs of the bridge will vary depending on the function of the bridge and the nature of the area where the bridge will be constructed. Students were introduced to six types of bridges used to make strong and stable structures; beam bridge, truss bridge, cantilever bridge, arch bridge, suspension bridge, and cable stayed bridge.
In particular we looked at the arch bridges first designed by the Romans; like the one at Étienne Brûlé Park which is located in the Humber River valley just north of Bloor Street West in Toronto. It is named after Étienne Brûlé, an early French explorer in the Toronto area. It is believed that Étienne Brûlé was the first European to see Lake Ontario in 1615, from a high point of land beside the Humber.
While a bridge has stood over the Humber River at this location since 1837, the present arched stone bridge was built in 1916. It was built in 1916 to replace a weaker bridge that was swept away. There are three segmental arches that support the span of the bridge. The Romans were excellent engineers and built long durable bridges many of which, still stand today. They used stone and concrete to build their bridges and used the arch as the basic architectural feature to make them strong. Roman architects built their bridges with arching shapes, enabling downward force from the top of the bridge arch to meet the equal force that was pushed from the ground in the bridge foundations. This technique created strong bridges that had the potential to carry as much load as its own weight (or even more).
Roman bridges were built most generally in a semi circular arch shape, however a few were built like the Old Mill bridge in a segmental arch shape. This arch shape allows greater amounts of water to pass below it and allows bridges to withstand the ebb and flow of water that takes place in a Northern climate during spring time. Modelled after the ancient Roman Bridge, the Old Mill bridge spans the Humber River at Etienne Brule Park.
Students used a variety of art materials including watercolour and acrylic paints as well as soft pastels to depict the Old Mill bridge as seen from the walking path. Take a look at some of the creations inspired by the Old Mill Bridge:
Beautiful work everyone!