Saturday, November 11, 2017

#2014 "Morning on the Kingston Causeway"

This was the first day of the Paint the Town Kingston in association with the International Plein Air Painters World Wide Paint Out. The weather was exceptional with a ridge of high pressure approaching in the wake of the cold front.

I went to the point at the southeast corner of the Old Woolen Mill Property. There was still a chilly northwest wind and this location offered some shelter. Duck families paddled by looking for hand-outs. They were used to being fed.
The view to the southeast toward the La Salle Causeway was interesting but essentially this is a skyscape. I was using paint that had been on the palette for three weeks so it had a lot of texture. From a cable ferry in the early 1800's, to the Penny Bridge in 1826, to the La Salle Causeway (built in 1916/17), Kingstonians have always been travelling between downtown Kingston and the former Pittsburg Township.

The first attempt at transportation across the river was a cable-operated scow type of ferry that began operating in 1786. Two rowboats were often available for use as well. In 1826 the Cataraqui Bridge Company was formed to build a wooden bridge "1800 feet long by 25 feet wide and built on stone piers". The Cataraqui Bridge was opened in 1829. Tolls were collected from a toll booth on the west end of the bridge, and since pedestrians were charged a penny, the bridge was popularly known as the "Penny Bridge". A draw bridge allowed larger vessels to pass through. The draw bridge was eventually replaced by an easier-to-operate swing bridge.

In 1917, the Penny Bridge was replaced by the causeway which included three bridges: two bridges at each end of the causeway, and the centre lift bridge. Of these, only the original centre lift bridge remains; the steel bridges at the east and west ends of the causeway were replaced with concrete bridges in 1962 and 1993 respectively.

The air mass was unstable and I could see towering cumulus develop to the northwest just as I was finishing this view to the south east.
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