Pedestrian bridge on Toronto waterfront reopening this weekend

The Amsterdam Bridge, a steel cable footbridge that dates to 1974, was deemed unsafe to cross in 2021

Published May 30, 2026  •  Last updated 23 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

The Amsterdam Bridge, seen in 2013, has been closed since 2021. The waterfront landmark, just west of the Harbourfront Centre, is getting a grand reopening this weekend. Photo by Postmedia Network files

After a million dollars and years of waiting, a pedestrian bridge on Toronto’s waterfront will officially reopen Sunday morning.

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The City of Toronto announced on Friday afternoon that it will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sunday, from 11 a.m. to noon, to reopen the Amsterdam Bridge. The steel cable footbridge, which dates to 1974, was deemed unsafe to cross in 2021.

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In November 2025, City Council approved a $640,000 rehabilitation of the bridge. A little more than half of that was to be paid out of Section 37 benefits.

However, during the city’s budget process in February, the project’s budget was inflated to $1.09 million with another $450,000 of Section 37 money.

The bridge is just to the west of the Harbourfront Centre, steps from Queens Quay near Lower Simcoe St. The Harbourfront Centre contributed $150,000 to the project in addition to the city funds, municipal documents show.

On the other side of the span are businesses, notably the Amsterdam Brewhouse, as well as a building used by the Toronto Police Service for its marine operations.

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It closed in early 2021 “due to disrepair,” according to the motion brought forward in November 2025 by Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik, the councillor for the ward that includes the bridge.

In a statement, the city told the Toronto Sun it was damaged by “extremely high winds during a storm.”

At November’s council meeting, Malik called the bridge “a landmark on our waterfront” but said it “has been damaged by a few different incidents since the pandemic.”

City documents point to the FIFA World Cup, which opens play in Toronto on June 12, as justification for spending to reopen the bridge.

That the bridge sat closed and broken for years appears to have bothered members of the York Quay Neighbourhood Association, which in a letter to City Council last year said the landmark had become a “blight” on the waterfront.

The bridge was given to Toronto in 1974 by the mayor of Amsterdam.

Malik is scheduled to speak at the ceremony, as is Marjan Schippers, who serves as the Dutch consul general in Toronto.

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