MACKENZIE KING BRIDGE (1950-2010) ...DIAMOND JUBILEE

Today, while it may not be the most picturesque piece of infrastructure, the Mackenzie King Bridge signifies the launch of the monumental makeover of the national capital region popularly known as 'The Greber Plan'. Of course it's fitting that this bridge came to carry the name of the man most responsible for the shape of modern Ottawa - but it was no accident. Naming the bridge was King's final political act.

Mackenzie King died at Kingsmere, Quebec on Saturday, July 22, 1950 (at 8:42 pm EST for those keeping track of clock hand alignments). His death came only days after the bridge was named.

In 1938, at King's invitation, French town planner Jacques Greber had produced a Beaux-Arts plan for the centre of the city, moving the railway station south to Laurier Avenue and opening a vast public park sweeping east of Elgin. The location of the bridge is suggested by an allee of trees.

Returning to Ottawa after WWII, Greber and a team bristling with the latest planning theories scaled the plan up to a comprehensive document that would also consider social, cultural, economic, environmental and transportation conditions. The bridge was to span the ideau Canal, linking a new crosstown arterial roadway system that was intended to relieve downtown traffic congestion.

An early version from Greber II showed the newly opened up 'Confederation Park' traversed by a full-blown bridge. The park would be ringed by important public buildings, including an Ottawa City Hall and a new National Gallery of Canada on Cartier Square.

The new bridge was to be given a slender profile in sylvan surroundings to protect the views up and down the Rideau Canal.

It has since been hemmed in by major buildings like the National Arts Centre, the Ottawa Congress Centre, the Rideau Centre and the Department of National Defense.

King had been prescient about Confederation Park. In 1926 (a year before the creation of the Federal District, and at a time when this entire area was filled in with railyards, and large industrial and apartment buildings) he wrote in his diary that he'd been inspired by the look of Chicago's Grant Park from Michigan Avenue. I have in mind, he said, the creation of a large central park in the centre of the city bounded by Lisgar, Elgin, Wellington, and Nicholas Streets. The park would be a symbol of the national capital region, with the Rideau Canal flowing though it as the Ottawa River flows through the national capital district.

The Mackenzie King Bridge never did serve its symbolic or arterial roadway function. While Albert and Slater Streets were turned into a pair of one-way streets, transportation engineers weren't successful in linking the eastern ends by blasting through Sandy Hill

The decision to relocate the railway station, yards and approaches entirely away from the centre of the city offered the potential to realize the vision for a great central park in the heart of the city. Greber's sketch shows the panoramic vista, aided on by his infamous suggestion to remove the tower from the East Block.

Luckily, Union Station was also spared. The new buildings turned Gerber's desired view shed into a view canyon.

In order to create the eastern approach a section of the Carleton County Jail had to be cut away. King wrote in his diary: 'Laurier House, Friday May 26, 1950. One incident of the day to be remembered is that of the tearing down of the old jail wall on Nicholas Street. McGregor* was quite excited about my seeing what was being done in that direction.'

'It is the beginning of the new bridge across the centre of the city. As the matter is certain to become one of controversy best settled down soon ..it has seemed to me appropriate that I should have one or two of my friends know the answers to be objections raised by those who would not want the bridge to have my name.'

A new and taller jailyard wall was built several feet to the north. King perceived potential problems arising from naming the bridge for a living political person, but drew solace from the fact the the Chateau Laurier Hotel had been named while Sir Wilfrid was still in office. Mackenzie King rationalized that: 'The whole argument in the other direction, as for example the period in which the bridge was being built; one given the most attention to the work of the [Federal District] Commission; appointed Commissoners, etc. would favour my name.'

The bridge had been intended to be called the Colonel By Bridge, for Lt-Col John By, the builder of the Rideau Canal and as yet not commemorated by any significant monument in Ottawa. 'It seems appropriate that this [the name substitution] should be done, and really inappropriate that a name which will identify the work, not the work of the Commission itself, as with our own period, but with a previous one as for example the Colonel By Bridge.'

The Greber Plan proposed two alternatives for the bridge precinct - with a new Ottawa City Hall at either the western (above) or eastern end of the bridge. Four days later King wrote: 'During the last day or two, McGregor has spoken with McTavish* and one or two of the others about the possibility of naming the trans-city bridge. Apparently Mayor Bourque of the city has something to do with the naming..' Bourque was also embroiled in a raging dispute over which end of the bridge was to receive the new city hall.

King continued: 'I had a word with Ewart* who is quite enthusiastic. McGregor found McTavish exceedingly so. McTavish, I think he said, was going to see Mayor Bourque. He had a word also with Pickersgill* about letting the PM Mr. St. Laurent know that this was something I would really value for historic reasons, and because of the part I had taken in the whole improvement development, but particularly the development related to the bridge itself and the whole central part of the city. It seemed a bit out of place to link that part, which related to World War No. II [the Plan had been dedicated to the veterans of the War] and city developments therefrom with Col. By and the development of his day.'

The Lorne Building sits where the City of Ottawa wanted its city hall, but this was looking unlikely. On June 1, 1950 King's diary noted: 'I weighed 168 lbs. this morning having gone back one pound since he last weight. Came upstairs [Laurier House's breakfast room was on the third floor]- porridge at 8pm. Later read the newspaper again. I was delighted in noticing that as a result of the interview between the Govt. and the Federal District Commission and the Board of Control, the City Council has had to reconsider the site for the new City Hall and that it has now been decided to have it on Nicholas Street, one corner of which will touch the Mackenzie King Bridge.'

'The plan will mean the Govt. will help in getting the other buildings in the vicinity to balance. This will make the city as being revised at present, done over in the most effective way. Indeed it brings the bridge into a prominence that could never have been dreamed of.' On July 12, 1950 the Ottawa Journal (a reliably Conservative organ not normally sympathetic to King) heartily endorse naming the bridge for him. The Ottawa Citizen (then a partisan Liberal paper) echoed this on June 20, 1950 adding that 'A memorial to Col. By would have to await another suitable opportunity.' Indeed it would.

'It really filled me with an inner delight, especially as I myself have not sought to bring any pressure on anyone but have simply looked on as developments took place. [Naming the bridge for Mackenzie King had apparently been initially suggested by a Social Credit Member of Parliament, but King clearly helped the process behind the scene.] 'What particularly pleased me was to see the Mackenzie King Bridge referred to as something already existing at it were.'

'Secondly a sketch by Greber which indicated the relative positions of different structures and which made the Mackenzie King Bridge more and more the heart of the city. That, if now carried out as agreed is something beyond my dreams.' Later that day King learned that Mayor Bourque had agreed to the naming of the bridge and that the location of the new City Hall was to be at the eastern edge of the span.

'MR. KING'S BRIDGE TAKES SHAPE. If progress on the construction of Mackenzie King Bridge means anything present residents of this town can entertain hopes that they will see the Ottawa of the future - a la Mr. Greber. Here at the Slater Street end of the Slater to Waller Street span work on the temporary wood structure goes on as traffic on the Driveway speeds by.' Ottawa Journal, September 30, 1950.

Of course the new Ottawa City Hall was built on neither end of the bridge- although the FDC's decision on the eastern site was reversed, and the western site (although this time on what would eventually be the National Arts Centre) was chosen in 1957. A new building was awarded through a design competition, but final location ended up being transferred to Green Island and built in 1958. However Nicholas Street did have to be lowered so that the streetcars could run under the bridge.

To begin construction on the National Arts Centre at the western end the bridge had to be taken down and rebuilt over terraces containing parts of the NAC garage and the backstage truck bays. Temporary road access was provided by a circular detour linking the bridge with Elgin Street.

The NAC pokes out from beneath the southern edge of the Mackenzie King Bridge.

The bridge, which had been considerably weakened by heavy bus traffic, was rehabilitated by the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton in 1998.

On July 1, 1950 the naming of the Mackenzie King Bridge was made official, and in the following days the dying King made some effort to write a letter of thanks to Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent - one of his last.

Apart from the scored concrete jailhouse wall, the only other suriving piece of masonry fabric on the bridge deck is this grey limestone pier at the southeast corner.

Sections of the original design (but not the original material, because they date from the NAC's conruction and were intended to match the 1950 railings) run along the terrace.

The height of original railing design was raised, and a vehicular bumper added for safety reasons during the 1998 renovations.

Whether it was through political intrigue or not, Mackenzie King managed to get his name on a bridge that is still at the heart of Ottawa - but not in the plans that he had envisioned.

It's kept his name in daily use, and 60 years later it is still worth remembering the role that his abiding personal interest in city planning played in the building of the national capital.

Politically, he is remembered as the wily old codger who clung onto power for a record term.

I prefer to think of him in more human terms - the obvious pleasure he took in greeting starlets like the 16-year old Shirley Temple on Parliament Hill during a VictoryBonds Drive.

Or the grandfatherly glee in getting a peck on the cheek from Barbara Ann Scott after she won the 1948 Olymic gold medal for figure skating.

Determined to die at Kingsmere, Mackenzie King made his way up there in the midst of the bridge-naming debate but kept in touch via his staff, visitors from Ottawa, and reading the newspapers, while noting the progress in his diary.

Because his death came so soon after his retirement, it generated a genuine outpouring of national remembrance, like this commemorative window display in the Agnew Surpass shoe store on Sparks Street.

King left highly detailed instructions for his state funeral. The body was brought back to Laurier House for private viewings by his family and close associates. It was then moved to Parliament Hill for a laying in state, where 35,000 citizens filed by.

On July 26, 1950 the procession moved to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Wellington Street for a special funeral service.

Returning along Wellington Street and across Confederation Square, the procession moved toward Union Station.

King's coffin entered the departure hall though the station's side doors on 'Little Sussex' Street.

In emotional tones the Ottawa Citizen reported: 'As it rolls out late today, on its mournful mission to take the body to Toronto, it will pass the ragged stumps and rugged footings of what is to become the Mackenzie King Bridge. This is not the first thing to be named after King. Fifty years from now we will still be naming persons and places after Mackenzie King. This is not the end of Mackenzie King, this is only beginning.' And, Col. John By would receive his long overdue recognition on this precise location with the naming of Colonel By Drive.

As it turned out, the bridge was one of the last places in Ottawa to be named for Mackenzie King. Following his death, King's reputation went into precipitous decline through the revelations of his complex inner life, moral lapses on human rights issues and the collapse of the Liberal Party dynasty in the 1950s. When LIFE magazine came to photograph the Kingsmere estate in August 1950 they found King's orphaned Irish Terrier waiting at the door.

Mentioned in King's May-June 1950 diary entries:

*Fred McGregor (who drove King to see the walls of the Nicholas Street jail coming down) was King's secretary from 1914 to 1925. In 1949 he returned to assist him in organizing his official papers. One of the few who could read King's crabbed handwriting, he was named an Executor to the King Estate, and was instrumental in transcribing the diaries.

*Duncan MacTavish (not McTavish as King spelled it) was a prominent corporate lawyer and National President of the Liberal Party of Canada. He was appointed to the Federal District Commission in 1950.

*Jack Pickersgill was an aide to Mackenzie King during the War years, and stayed on as a Special Assistant to Prime Minister St.Laurent. He frequently acted as a go-between from King to the PM.

*J. Albert Ewart (son of Chief Dominion Architect David Ewart) had a large architectural practice in Ottawa and offered friendly advice to King on design matters - like the layout of the Abbey ruins at Kingsmere.

*E.A.'Eddy' Bourque was Mayor of Ottawa from 1949-1950. As Controller he had worked on the creation of the Ottawa Transportation Commission, and had been appointed by King to work with Jacques Greber on the creation of the Greenbelt.