Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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Railways Over the Humber

Photos by Alan L Brown - Posted August, 2011

This Story Circle, the third of 13 story circles on the "Discovery Walks - The Shared Path", can be found at a crosswalk just north of the railway tracks on the south side. Here's what the plaques say:

Coordinates: 43.634703 -79.472762

Ancient trails have long merged where the mouth of the Humber River meets the shore of Lake Ontario. In the 1850s, footpaths and wagon roads were joined by railway tracks.

Toronto's first railway, the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway served the same purpose as the Carrying Place trail, the ancient portage route up the Humber River - they both carried trade goods and people overland to connect Lake Ontario with the upper Great Lakes.

Only a few years later, the first railway tracks along the lakeshore were laid here, in 1855 for the Hamilton and Toronto Railway. As a result, the landscape at this location was again altered by the construction of a viaduct to carry trains over the river.

The railways on the viaduct above have carried generations of passengers, and tonnes of freight, to and from such places as Windsor, Niagara Falls, and New York City. Since 1967, they have also carried GO Train passengers. Today, this rail corridor - near the beginning of an ancient portage route - is one of the busiest in Canada.

Shared Path Story Circles Information and Map
Discovery Walks - The Shared Path

Related webpages
The Humber River
Great Lakes

Related Toronto plaque
The Toronto Carrying Place

Related Ontario plaque
Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway

Links to all the other Story Circles
  #1 Discover the Humber River's Ancient Past
  #2 Toronto Carrying Place
  #4 Roads over the Humber River
  #5 Boating on the Humber River
  #6-1 The Beginnings of French Toronto
  #6-2 The Rousseaux Family and Early Toronto
  #6-3 Jean-Baptiste Rousseaux 1758-1812
  #7 Humber River Marshes and Oak Savannah
  #8 Huron-Wendat Villages on the Humber River
  #9 Hurricane Hazel
#10 The King's Mill
#11 Teiaiagon and the Aboriginal Occupation of Baby Point
#12 Dundas Street Crossing and Lambton Mills
#13 Mississauga Settlements on the Humber River

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