Seaway International Bridge Walk

Hey blog buddies, I can't believe how far behind I am with posts on my blog lately. I've been meaning to make a post for the bridge walk for over a month now.

For those of you who aren't familiar with my home city of Cornwall, Ontario, I'll give you just a very quick overview.

For the longest time, we were mainly known for our stench, as a paper mill town. If you've ever passed through a city/town with a paper mill, you'll know what I mean by the smell. For the most part of my life, I lived at the far end of town way east of the paper mill, so the smell wasn't an issue, but any time we'd drive near the factory the smell was unmistakable. The stink is mainly caused from the boiling of the wood pulp in chemicals to soften and bleach it. The paper mill actually shut down operations several years ago, and 90% of the vast property and buildings have been cleared.

One of the other major landmarks in Cornwall is the Seaway International Bridge, which connects Cornwall to Cornwall Island (Native Reserve) and then leads to New York state (USA) by a second (suspension) bridge.

A few bridge facts:
- Built in 1962.
- 3000 tons of rebar were used in the construction of the deck.
- 41,000 tons of concrete were used.
- The bridge contains 5700 tons of steel girders.
- It took 32,000 gallons of paint to paint the bridge.
- The bridge is 120 feet high. The bridge was originally built to allow tall ships to pass underneath it, but none ever did.
- The bridge cost 8.2 million to build in 1962, which is roughly equivalent to 43 million today.
- 78% of the bridge is over land.
- Over the past 52 years, 78.2 million cars and 3.9 million transports have crossed the bridge.

That said, the bridge is being demolished starting this week. A new (and short) low bridge has been built, and is already in use, and will replace the old bridge. The old bridge has been costly over the years to maintain, and is in pretty poor shape (as you'll see from the photos).

I had been hoping to be able to make it onto the bridge to take photos for several months, but as soon as the new bridge went into operation, the old bridge was barred-off with a barbed-wire fence.

Then, in early July, just a few days before the event, I saw on Facebook that the Seaway International Bridge Corporation was going to open the bridge to everyone for the "Final Bridge Walk" which was to take place Tuesday July 8th, from 2pm to 8pm. I found it a bit odd (and unfair to a lot of people) that the bridge would only be open to the public for such a short time, and on a Tuesday (when a lot of people would be at work), but I made plans with my boss to leave a bit early for the event.

I left work around 3pm, and I made it to the bridge around 3:45 or so. This was a VERY hot and hazy summer day. One of the hottest days this summer.

When I arrived, I was pleased to see that MANY people had turned up for the event.

The first portion of the bridge has tall chain-link fences, so some photos were difficult (or a bit tricky) to take.

This photo shows Brookdale Ave. on the east side of the bridge. The east side has the majority of Cornwall, while the west end has smaller subdivisions, and newer neighbourhoods. Directly to the west of the bridge is actually the Howard Smith Paper Co./DOMTAR paper mill property. As I was touring/walking on the bridge, all the first photos focused on the east, and I planned to take photos of the west side on my way back, since there was much less to see on that side.



Here is a good photo that shows the condition of the deck. 52 years of patch work in every conceivable material has taken its toll on the roadway.



One of the old lights. The gaps in the fence on each side of the lights provided the only easy way to take good photos.



Here's a good shot pointing north-east towards my house (completely obscured by a tree, but visible later). In the FAR distance (under the crane), you can see the water tower.



Cornwall Water Tower:



A little farther down, my house was visible. It was easy to spot by looking for my neighbour's distinctly shaped front porch.



Note the three houses with the triangular pointed roofs to the left. Here's the "ground" view of my place, also showing those three houses.



This was the best "bird's eye view" (zoomed-in version of the earlier photo) that I was able to get of my house 'as viewed from the bridge'.





This was farther down the bridge.



Some of the views of the bridge may seem odd, as this one below, because the bridge actually has an "S" shape, so the curves allowed for some neat photos. Showing west side. You can see the second bridge in the distance at the upper right. You can also see the new low bridge at the bottom right.



General view of Cornwall/downtown. If you look very closely on the far right, just barely touching the horizon is the dark brown-black steeple of Trinity Church (my favourite church). I made an entire post over a year ago, showing the interior of the church (along with a video clip that shows the exterior) here:
My 1923 Foursquare - Cornwall Homes - Trinity Anglican Church



The church steeple in the centre top is St. Columban's which will be shown again. Here's a photo from the ground that shows this church. The church is a few blocks east of my house.



Centre of the bridge/girders.



A shot straight down Water Street, which then turns into Montreal Rd. (Hwy 138 South). The park along the waterfront is Lamoureux Park, and it's the location where all our outdoor concerts/events, hot air balloon festivals, and Canada Day celebrations take place. There is actually a carnival that was going on at the time, and you can spot a Ferris wheel.

Also visible in this photo is Nativity church (the church I attended as a kid) with the red roof (just right of the centre, and actually on the same street, which curves).

There is also a white dot visible on the horizon, just left of the centre road, and this is the ball over the Nav Centre (formerly Nav Canada) building (see image below).



Here are two photos of Nativity Church. This first black and white photo was photographed by Cory Marsolais from the apartment building directly across from the church.



Here is a shot of the interior of the church, taken by Richard Pilon. The interior is beautifully painted in light blue and gold, and features ornate oak woodwork.



A small paragraph of info about the church can be found here:
http://www.cornwall-lacac.on.ca/bignativity.html

This is an overall view of Nav Centre (viewed from the river, pointing north):



To give you a rough idea of distance, it would take me about 30 minutes to walk to the church (from the bridge), and another 40-50 minutes to walk all the way to Nav. It doesn't look that far in the photo, but it's quite far.

Also just barely visible in the park is the clock tower. If you scroll back up to the photo and look just a bit south of the red church roof, near the road in the park is a tiny triangular roof (just over a dark tree top), which is the roof of this clock tower:



This shot is taken from the same spot, but turned towards the north. Again, you can see St.Columban's church,



This is past the portion of the bridge with the chain link fence, and this time, looking to the west across the St. Lawrence river. The portion to the right is part of the old canal system, and to the right of this is parts of the old DOMTAR/paper mill property.



In the distance above, you can sort of see the Saunders Hydro-Electric Dam. Here's an up-close photo of the dam by Dean. I have other photos farther down. If you want information about the dam, have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses-Saunders_Power_Dam



Another shot of Cornwall, a little farther down the bridge. In the lower right is part of the new border/customs location as part of the new bridge. The water here is part of the old canal.



Another shot back on the west side, showing the remains of the former paper mill.



I took some photos with the railings partly to show how low they are. They come up just above knee-level, and made me quite nervous. In the distance is the dam.



West side, showing some of the curvature of the bridge. Again, the water here is the canal, not the river.



Here is the brand new low bridge. It was built right alongside the old bridge on the west side. This is the portion that spans the St. Lawrence river.



Here's a close-up of the dam. In the water, you can spot one of the old piers from an old train bridge, which collapsed long ago (early 1900s).





I'm not a huge "selfie" guy, but I took a few with a great view of the city behind me. It was starting to get cloudy at this point.



I like this one because you can see the steel girders in the sun glasses.



More artsy/interesting photos.









Second street (one of the main roads through town) looking west. This smoke sack was attached to the huge main building of the paper mill, to the left of the road. There were originally plans to blow it up in a big celebration, and have a big draw for who would win to push the button, but apparently there were too many concerns about carcinogens/chemical residues from all the dust it would create, so nothing has been done with the stack for a few years now. It's one of the last remaining things left to demolish on the property.

All the residential areas to the west are a few blocks away past the trees.





One of the 2 main designs of expansion joints used on the deck.



Heading back into Cornwall (back to the starting point).



I finished the bridge walk just shortly before 5pm, and as soon as I got home, it started to rain.

Overall, it was a great afternoon, and they had the entire event really nicely set up. They had large placards (not shown) that had photos of the bridge's construction, along with the facts I noted earlier. They also had one or two spots where they were handing out free bottles of water (because it was insanely hot), and a few benches set up for people to sit. Near the middle of the bridge, they had sidewalk chalk and were letting people (lots of kids) write their names and draw on the bridge. It was too bad that my Mom couldn't come (she was at work) and that my friend Lynne couldn't come (she lives over in Ottawa).

I hope you guys enjoyed these photos!

Insert Whitty Title Here

I don't know how people on other blogs manage to come up with all sorts of witty and interesting titles for their posts. I suck at it, and usually don't even try, but I didn't want to call this "Another Boring Update".

As promised, here are the two completed antique grates. One is original to the house (the one in the green living room), and the other identical one was installed to replace the large and poorly located floor grate next to the front door.

If you missed it, and wanted to see how I did that, go see these posts (in this order):
http://my1923foursquare.blogspot.ca/2013/01/secret-project-revealed.html
http://my1923foursquare.blogspot.ca/2013/01/office-floor-new-look-for-2013.html

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I had one missing thumb latch from my original grate, so I had a new copy cast in brass. I had paid 50$ for the second (and complete) grate, and unfortunately, it cost 45$ just for the casting. I could have just bought an entire new grate for an extra 5$, but I would have needed to travel out of town to go get it, and I hadn't gotten a quote for the casting, so I didn't think it was going to be that much.



Here's the final product. Grate closed:



Grate open:



Office grate:



In other news, I decided to spend last night with some lovely antique lighting. I used my two whale oil lamps, paired with old mirrors to double the light.



This prompted me to look for my other whale oil lamp AGAIN. I had another nice clear lamp that I've had packed away, and I couldn't find it. I looked for it on 3 or 4 occasions over the past month or so, and I finally found it this afternoon.

I wasn't happy with how I found it though...



Broken in half.



I actually discovered that the lamp was already broken here, and previously repaired. There was a thin layer of clear adhesive, and I spent about 30 minutes scraping it off and cleaning the joint. I plan to re-repair the lamp with Hxtal, which is a specialty glass adhesive used by museums. It's very expensive, but it's supposed to make an incredibly strong repair, and be crystal clear. I've been meaning to buy some to repair a broken clock glass (hand painted) from the 1840s, so this is another excuse for me to buy some.

This fine lamp also has a completely ruined original pewter collar, which I will need to replace, along with a burner. Unfortunately it's not a standard size, which will make my restoration job incredibly difficult. The lamp is from the 1830s or 40s.

Learn a bit About Upholstery

I just made an interesting and educational post over on the upholstery (work) blog regarding the different kinds of materials that are used as stuffing in antiques. If you have any kind of interest in upholstery, I would urge you to go have a look.

Lefebvre's Upholstery Blog - My Furniture is Stuffed with WHAT?

Antique Heating Grates (Update)

I just finished-up the two antique heating grates last night (for the Office and Living Room). The new casting for the missing latch was brought back to me this week, and I painted it over the past few days (primer, followed by black on the back end, then white on the front). And they are now installed and functional again.

The casting ended up being quite expensive (nearly the price of buying an entire salvaged grate), but I had never gotten an actual quote for the casting, and it's over and done now.

I wanted to share photos, but I forgot my camera at work, so I will post those next week.

Before & After Photos - "L" Room

Here are the finished photos for the "L" Room, which show the room as it looked when I bought the house in 2010, and now, after a ton of work rebuilding the closet walls, repairing the window mouldings, replacing the missing mouldings for the doors, fixing electrical outlets, fixing the duct work, repairing/patching and repainting the original tongue and groove pine floor, fixing the absolutely terrible ceiling (which had been textured with drywall compound and a broom), etc.

The photos rotate counter-clockwise from the left-hand corner as you walk into the room.



The bookcase was removed because this is the only usable wall without any obstructions (windows or doors). This would be the idea spot to have the headboard of a bed. When the house was originally built this was actually a window, but now there's an attached building on this side.



Note: the interior of the closet is still unfinished drywall at the moment.



Here you can see where I rebuilt the new wall to land even with this stupid corner that they had (this doorway was not here originally).



The only drastic change to this corner was the lowering of the outlet, and repairing the sloppily installed baseboards (with 1 missing corner stake).







The floor here needed a lot of repairs. A lot of the pine boards are new, and had to be custom made to fit.



The original closets were only 16" deep, and they had been modified twice in the past. Originally they separated the two east rooms upstairs. At some time in the 40s or 50s they were opened up into a curved archway to make an upstairs kitchen and dining room, with a small broom closet at each end. After this, they were again turned back into one single long closet. I tore everything out and made this back into two closets and a built-in linen closet for the hallway. One closet is larger (the one for this large L shaped room), and the other one (only partially built) will serve the small back room in the north-east corner.



A few additional photos.

This shows the main doorway, the linen closet in the hallway, and the new closet for the "L" Room. The doorway to the right of the hallway built-in leads to the small north-east bedroom mentioned above.



Here is the newly refurbished and rewired (antique) light fixture, with antique glass shades. This fixture was bought in rough shape on eBay over a year ago, and the shades were purchased separately (also on eBay). The fixture (along with all the other ones in the house) was rewired using antique reproduction Rayon covered wire. The painted finish on the fixture also had to be redone from scratch.



Lit:



Note: for those who are curious, the wall paint is Behr's "Olivine" and the floor is "Florence Brown".

Finishing-Up The "L" Room

The upstairs "L" Room is finally done, and I'm posting 2 entries of the finished results. This first part shows some of the last touches before painting the walls and cleaning-up the floor.

This was the last section of baseboard that I had to install, along with the little corner stake (which were removed when the entire closet walls were rebuilt). I reused an old piece of baseboard (from the pieces I had removed for repairs in several rooms), installed it, caulked it, primed it, painted it, and I had to wait a day or so to dry thoroughly until I could tape it to paint the walls.



The ceiling (after all that messy and horrible drywall work) got seal-coated with some of my scrap paint (which turned out to be mostly a transparent base), followed by 2 thick coats (or was it 3?) of my flat white ceiling paint. Considering I was going to hire someone to do the drywall joints on the ceiling, I'm extremely pleased with how nice and flat it turned out.





Next was the taping of all the mouldings. I've mentioned it before, but I'm not a fan of "cutting-in" around mouldings. I do it at the ceiling edge (and it never looks that great), but I prefer the nice clean lines that I end up getting with tape. You *DO* end up needing some touch-ups from bleed-through or missed corners, but with a small brush these are quick and easy to do.





This was after the first coat of green (Behr's "Olivine"), and this is the first time that I don't get great coverage on my first coat, using the Behr Premium Plus paint and primer in one. I always do 2 coats anyways, and it looked fantastic after the second coat, but I wasn't thrilled with the first coat (as far as the coverage).





Check out the next post to see the final before and after photos!

"L" Room Update

I just did the first coat of ceiling paint, and I also primed the new wall section. A few days ago I also installed, caulked, and primed the last section of baseboard.

I will need one more coat of ceiling paint, a few coats of white on the baseboard, then the walls can be painted.

"L" Room Drywall Update

I figured that a boring update would be better than no update, but at least this one will include a bunch of photos! :D

If you've read my last post, you know that I'm finally pushing to have the "L" Room upstairs DONE and start using it. The last steps are the ceiling and painting (and if you want to get picky, there's still no doors, and I'll work on the closet interior later).

Today I sanded all the ceiling and corners (at the top of the walls). What a mess. Just when I thought I had done a pretty good job, and that there'd be minimal sanding, I end up being totally wrong, and making a huge mess.

Overall, though, the ceiling did turn out nicely, and I had only one spot that needed touch-ups.

Here was the third (touch-up) coat from yesterday (drying):





I mentioned that I got some new drywall trowels and I thought I would show them. Pictured are the two new trowels (the corner trowel and the 10 inch trowel) along with my trusty 6" trowel which I've been using for years. You can see that the blade is spotty (from accidentally leaving it damp which caused rust spots to form).



This was a photo (a "selfie" if you will) of me from this afternoon right after I had finished sanding everything. There was dust EVERYWHERE, including some that was caked-onto my sweaty t-shirt, and it billowed all the way through the hallway upstairs.

Shortly after this, I cleaned up all the dust (shop vac), dusted myself off, and took a shower.

And the reason my mouth is open is because my nose was a bit plugged-up.



Sanded ceiling shots:





I'm really glad that I decided to protect the floor with this cardboard stuff. It's a construction-grade cardboard used both as a floor protector, and as a layer under hardwood (to prevent squeaking). I'll be using some when I redo the hallway on the main floor, but it comes in a huge roll for something like 15$.

One of the main reason for laying that down was for the paint drops (from primer, ceiling and wall paint), but I ended up also dropping several blobs of drywall compound everywhere (which would have been a nightmare to clean out of the gaps in the old floor).



As a last minute decision, I decided to go ahead and install the last panel in the corner (see photo below). If you remember a long time ago, I had loosely fitted this piece, but I didn't attach it because I wanted to be able to have easy access around both sides of the chimney for when I knock it down. Well, I figured I'd have enough room from the other side, and that it would be so much easier to just finish this room completely -all at the same time, and be DONE with it. Otherwise I would have needed to go back later and mud/paint this section maybe a year from now when the chimney is gone.

So this just made more sense. I cut the hole for the outlet, screwed-in the panel, mudded it (first coat only), and once it's good, I'll install that last corner block and length of baseboard, paint those, and then paint the whole room in one shot.



I figure that if things dry fairly quick, I could be done with this room by next weekend.

"L" Room Update

I don't have much of an update, and I didn't think to take any pictures yet, but rather than pay someone, I've finally caved and decided to mud the ceiling in the "L" Room myself. I did 3/4 of the scratch coat a week or so ago, and then ran out of mud. I bought more mud about a week ago, and I finished the scratch coat a few days ago. That brings us to today, where I did the first topcoat on the seams and corners.

It actually went really well, and I attribute that success to some new tools. I watched a few drywall videos on YouTube several weeks back, and they always make it look SO Fast and EASY. I mean, it's not HARD by any means, but there's a lot of technique involved.

What blew my mind though, was the corner trowel.

Some of the best DIY videos I've found (including the detailed ones I used as a reference to install the new vinyl siding on the garage) are from Shannon at House Improvements (one of his videos is below).

In this drywall video, you see him use the corner trowel at around the 3:10 mark.



I don't know how I went so long without even knowing that this tool existed. For YEARS now, I've been tediously doing my corners mostly (or partly) one side at a time, because a regular trowel always leaves an odd edge in the corner. I've also been doing most of all my drywall with only a 6" trowel (which isn't really wide enough for finishing coats).

So after having watched a few of his videos, I decided to invest in both a wider trowel, and a corner trowel. These range in prices, and I went with an inexpensive set at around 10$ each trowel.

Today was my first time using both, and wow! What a difference! The job went faster, the joints are smoother, and the corners and joints look wonderful!

I think I can probably get away with just another light pass, some light sanding, and then I'll be ready to paint! I've already had the wall paint bought for months now, and I still have leftover ceiling paint, so I have pretty much everything already on hand.