On October 15, 1954 Hurricane Hazel hit Toronto, causing massive and unprecedented flooding throughout the area's riverine corridors. Houses flooded, bridges washed away, 81 people in Canada died. After the storm passed, Scarborough found itself cut off from relief efforts aiding the rest of the Toronto area, as the bridges crossing the Rouge River had all been damaged or destroyed by the flood surge. Canada's 2nd Field Engineer Regiment spent three days building this bailey bridge, one of a series built across the Rouge. Eventually all the bailey bridges were replaced except for this one at Old Finch Avenue. The story doesn't end there, however. It's a Scarborough urban legend that this bridge is haunted. The tale goes that in the 1970s a young teenage girl was separated from her friends returning from her own birthday party and was brutally murdered while crossing the Old Finch Bailey Bridge. Her spirit now haunts the bridge, and if you walk across it late at night while singing "Happy Birthday" (other versions of the story say you must shout "Happy Birthday Candy!" instead), you will hear her disembodied screams surround you. We went in the day and didn't cross the bridge on foot as there was more traffic on this one lane bridge than we were comfortable with, so we had no way of testing the legend, but perhaps you'll have the opportunity one dark and moonless night.
