Castanet

Hundreds of skaters embraced Toronto’s deep freeze on Saturday, testing the city’s newest public space during its grand opening beneath the Gardiner.

“This is for residents who don’t have a front yard or a back yard in which to play,” philanthropist Judy Matthews told the crowd from a podium at the top of a 220-metre-long ice trail that winds around concrete pillars holding up the expressway.

A $25-million donation made three years ago by Matthews and her husband, Wilmot, an investment banker, has transformed this urban dead zone from Strachan Ave. to Bathurst St. into a lively stretch now called The Bentway, a reference to the concrete “bents” that carry the weight of the Gardiner overhead.

With the temperature around -20 C (not counting the wind chill), Matthews took shears to a red ribbon just after 11 a.m. to open the trail, which sits at the foot of Fort York and forms part of a larger, 1.1-kilometre-long park that will be unveiled in June.