Not much progress on the Friendship Trail this week; possibly a delay in pouring cement as the weather wasn't too co-operative. But one can see how the final product will look and note those nice finishing touches with the old posts from the original promenade.
FORT ERIE - Walk around the Erie Beach ar a while the final leg of th Friendship Trail construction is und rway and it's not hard to hear conversations about other work the town should be doing in the area.
Fixing the old steamship pier, filling the swimming pool with dirt and creating a park complete with bandshell, or even restoring the old concrete pool which was advertised nearly a century ago as the world's largest.
Such an endeavour would create quite a tourist attraction, said Howard Melcher when asked about the idea during a recent walk through the area.
continue reading in the Fort Erie Post
The preparation is nearly done on the east end of the Erie Beach section of the Friendship Trail. The base has been built up from truckloads of gravel, slabs of the broken, busted-up concrete from the original promenade are being used along the edge and the cement will probably be poured during the next week. At the west end, the boardwalk is installed and there is new concrete all the way past the old dance hall to the spot you see at the very end of this video.
Have to hand it to Stevensville Lawn Service, the company that is constructing the Erie Beach section of the Friendship Trail. Along the way, wherever possible, they have preserved elements of the old promenade. And where they've found some of the few guard rails/lamp posts that remain, they've incorporated them into the trail. Nice work.
The above and below photos, taken Friday, also shows the progress of the work being done at the east end of the promenade, where the rubble had to be sorted -- large blocks of the old concrete are being used to reinforce the new section and also act as steps to the waterfront -- and a new base is being installed. 
Ken dug into his collection of old roller coaster photos and passed along this beauty of the Wildcat.
Remains of the electric fountain from the Erie Beach Amusement Park were somewhat hidden for a long time, but in recent years have been dug out and used as a fire pit by those who have fun in the woods after the sun goes down. The above photo, taken by Doug Garner in the 1980s, shows how the centre portion of the fountain, installed pre-1920, was filled in with weeds and small trees at the time. When compared to photo below, taken in July, it also shows how thick the trees have grown in during the last two decades.
Below, you get an idea of what the fountain looked like in its heyday.
The above photo, taken from the opposite angle of the first three, shows the fountain near the middle on the right side, giving you an idea of where it is located next to the promenade just east of where the old dance hall stood.
Can't recall off the top of my head if the rest of the concrete is around there (it must be). Next time I am down there I plan to move some dirt around and see what's buried under there.
The water level at the east end of Lake Erie is lower than I ever recall seeing it. I recall when the water where that mid-sized dog is standing, in this photo from Saturday, was usually at least six feet deep and only the tops of those rocks were visible.
Construction at the west end of the old promenade is nearly complete. The cement is is place, just a little work on the boardwalk at Waverly Beach remains. Work on the east end, though, where there was no concrete base left to work on, continues slowly. What is done looks great -- and what is to come will no doubt look as good. It should be completed in mid-October.
