1.
Cherry blossom
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A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is called sakura after the Japanese. Currently it is distributed, especially in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere including Japan, China, Korea, Europe, West Siberia, India, Canada. Along with the chrysanthemum, the blossom is considered the national flower of Japan. Many of the varieties that have cultivated for ornamental use do not produce fruit. Edible cherries generally come from cultivars of the related species Prunus avium, Cherry blossom are also closely related to other Prunus trees such as the almond, peach, plum and apricot and more distantly to apples, pears and roses. Hanami is the practice of picnicking under a blooming sakura or ume tree. The custom is said to have started during the Nara Period when it was ume blossoms that people admired in the beginning, but by the Heian Period, cherry blossoms came to attract more attention and hanami was synonymous with sakura. From then on, in both waka and haiku, flowers meant cherry blossoms, the custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court, but soon spread to samurai society and, by the Edo period, to the common people as well. Tokugawa Yoshimune planted areas of cherry trees to encourage this. Under the sakura trees, people had lunch and drank sake in cheerful feasts, the blossoming begins in Okinawa in January and typically reaches Kyoto and Tokyo at the end of March or the beginning of April. It proceeds into areas at the altitudes and northward, arriving in Hokkaidō a few weeks later. Japanese pay close attention to these forecasts and turn out in numbers at parks, shrines. Hanami festivals celebrate the beauty of the blossom and for many are a chance to relax. The custom of hanami dates back centuries in Japan. The eighth-century chronicle Nihon Shoki records hanami festivals being held as early as the third century AD, most Japanese schools and public buildings have cherry blossom trees outside of them. Since the fiscal and school year both begin in April, in parts of Honshū, the first day of work or school coincides with the cherry blossom season. The Japan Cherry Blossom Association developed a list of Japans Top 100 Cherry Blossom Spots with at least one location in every prefecture, the association of the cherry blossom with mono no aware dates back to 18th-century scholar Motoori Norinaga. There is at least one popular song, originally meant for the shakuhachi, titled Sakura
2.
Urban park
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The design, operation and maintenance is usually done by government, typically on the local level, but may occasionally be contracted out to a private sector company. A park is an area of space provided for recreational use. Grass is typically kept short to discourage insect pests and to allow for the enjoyment of picnics, trees are chosen for their beauty and to provide shade. An early purpose-built public park, although financed privately, was Princes Park in the Liverpool suburb of Toxteth and this was laid out to the designs of Joseph Paxton from 1842 and opened in 1843. The land on which the park was built was purchased by Richard Vaughan Yates, the creation of Princes Park showed great foresight and introduced a number of highly influential ideas. First and foremost was the provision of space for the benefit of townspeople. Nashs remodelling of St Jamess Park from 1827 and the sequence of processional routes he created to link The Mall with Regents Park completely transformed the appearance of Londons West End. Liverpool had a presence on the scene of global maritime trade before 1800. The latter was commenced in 1843 with the help of public finance, frederick Law Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park in 1850 and praised its qualities. Indeed, Paxton is widely credited as having one of the principal influences on Olmsted. Another early public park is the Peel Park, Salford, England opened on 22 August 1846, in The Politics of Park Design, A History of Urban Parks in America, Professor Galen Cranz identifies four phases of park design in the U. S. As time passed and the area grew around the parks, land in these parks was used for other purposes, such as zoos, golf courses. These parks continue to draw visitors from around the region and are considered regional parks, because they require a higher level of management than smaller local parks. According to the Trust for Public Land, the three most visited parks in the United States are Central Park in New York, Lincoln Park in Chicago. In the early 1900s, according to Cranz, U. S. cities built neighborhood parks with swimming pools, playgrounds and civic buildings and these smaller parks were built in residential neighborhoods, and tried to serve all residents with programs for seniors, adults, teens and children. Green space was of secondary importance, as urban land prices climbed, new urban parks in the 1960s and after have been mainly pocket parks. One such example of a park is Chess Park in Glendale. This award-winning park was given an award by the American Society of Landscape Architects and these small parks provide greenery, a place to sit outdoors, and often a playground for children
3.
Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, it is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto and this refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
4.
Ontario
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Ontario, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canadas most populous province by a margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and it is home to the nations capital city, Ottawa, and the nations most populous city, Toronto. There is only about 1 km of land made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontarios population and arable land is located in the south, in contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and is heavily forested. The province is named after Lake Ontario, a thought to be derived from Ontarí, io, a Huron word meaning great lake, or possibly skanadario. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes, the province consists of three main geographical regions, The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes, Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions, Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario. The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the north and northeast, mainly swampy. Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe, the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands, the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment, the Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canadas mainland, Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the border of California. The climate of Ontario varies by season and location, the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontarios climate is classified as humid continental, Ontario has three main climatic regions
5.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
7.
High Park station
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High Park is a station on the Bloor–Danforth line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located just north of Bloor Street West, spanning the block east of Quebec Avenue to High Park Avenue and it opened in 1968 as part of the westerly extension from Keele to Islington Station. Wi-Fi service is available at this station, the station is mostly underground, lying behind the properties which face on to the north side of Bloor Street. The main entrance is from Quebec Avenue at the end of the surface bus transfer area, with the ticketing mezzanine one level below. The station has escalators here, but despite having ramps at the entrance it does not have elevators to provide access to the platforms for those with a physical disability. A second entrance from High Park Avenue is at the east end of the bus platform, the west end is at ground level, with an apartment building constructed partially over the station and along the south side. Admission and exit at this end of the station is underground through unstaffed turnstiles, the original external signage and trim has a unique bright blue background colour, whereas standard stations are red. Rehabiliation of the station has included repairs to the roof slab, original deteriorating walls and fences were replaced with sound barriers along the bus transfer area and beyond the west end of the station platforms. Nearby landmarks include High Park and Humberside Collegiate Institute, since the bus platform is located outside the fare-paid area, a paper transfer is required to connect to surface routes. 30A Lambton to Kipling Station 30B to High Park Media related to High Park Station at Wikimedia Commons High Park Station at the Toronto Transit Commission
8.
Keele station
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Keele is a station on the Bloor–Danforth line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located just north of Bloor Street West on the east side of Keele Street, the station opened in 1966, and was the western terminus of the line until 1968. Wi-Fi service is available at this station, when the Bloor-Danforth line was opened in 1966 from Keele to Woodbine station, the Bloor streetcar route was dramatically shortened. It now traveled east from Jane Loop only as far as Keele Station, at the end of the line. On 11 May 1968, the Bloor and Danforth streetcars were both eliminated when the subway extensions west to Islington and east to Warden were opened, after streetcar service to the station ended in 1968, the streetcar loop property was redeveloped and the moving ramp was sealed off. The former trolleybus loop is used, by buses. Keele and Dundas West were considered potential stations for the terminus of Phase Two of the proposed Downtown Relief Line. Just west of Keele Street, the line emerges from a hillside, changing directly from tunnel to an alignment on an enclosed bridge. The fully enclosed station crosses over both Keele Street and a side street named Indian Grove. Just east of the station the line emerges onto an open viaduct, the line then continues at ground level beside the no longer active Vincent Subway Yard, before descending into the Dorval Portal as it continues to Dundas West Station. Nearby landmarks include High Park and Keele Junior Public School, the neighbourhood of The Junction is located north of the station
9.
John George Howard
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John George Howard, born John Corby, was the City of Toronto, Canadas official surveyor and civil engineer. Born John Corby in Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England in 1803, Howard was the fourth of seven children of John and he attended a boarding-school in Hertford and spent two years at sea as a sailor before return to England to become a carpenter and joiner. In 1824, he entered the profession, articling for three years to a London architect, William Ford, who became his brother-in-law, marrying Howards older sister in 1825. Corby remained with Ford until his departure for Canada, in London, Howard met and married his wife 24-year-old Jemima Frances Meikle on May 7,1827. In 1832, Corby met Mr. Cattermole of the Canada Land Company, leading to John and it was at this time that Howard adopted the Howard surname. John and Jemima remained married until death, however John maintained a relationship with Mary Williams. John and Jemima themselves had no children, in 1877, Jemima died of cancer. Howard lived until 1890, dying at home at Colborne Lodge in High Park, the Howards are buried in High Park, their cairn monument is near to Colborne Lodge. The monument was designed by Howard, the fence was brought from London, England. It dates to the 1700s and was part of the fence around St. Pauls Cathedral and was designed by Christopher Wren. During its transport from England, the carrying the fence sank in the St. Lawrence River. Howard was an associate of William Ford from 1824–1832, with one notable engineering project working on the Cromford Canal in Derbyshire and he is also known to have worked for Mr. Grayson of St. Lukes, London, superintending work on Leeds Castle. When Howard arrived in Toronto in 1833, he was the first professional architect in Toronto and his first public appointment was a teaching master at Upper Canada College, while developing an architectural practise. He remained affiliated with UCC until 1856 and his practise thrived with commissions ranging from cottages to banks to public projects, including Queens College of Kingston, Ontario, and the Provincial Lunatic Asylum in Toronto. Howard started surveying work in 1836, become Torontos official surveyor in 1843 and he surveyed Toronto harbour, laid out the Esplanade on the waterfront, and subdivided the harbours peninsula. He also did surveying work for cemeteries and private land sub-divisions, in 1883, the Governor-General of Canada conferred upon him the dignity of Royal Canadian Academician. In other endeavours, Howard was involved with the militia put down William Lyon Mackenzies 1837 rebellion. Howard is recorded as leading the party which found the rebels location on December 7,1937
10.
Rouge National Urban Park
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Since 2011, Parks Canada has been working to nationalize and nearly double the size of the original Rouge Park. In the coming years, Parks Canada is planning to add several new trails, education and orientation centres and improved signage and interpretive panels and displays throughout the park. Parks Canada has also introduced dozens of new programs to the park, including Learn-to-Camp, Learn-to-Hike, fire side chats. Once fully established, the park will span 79.1 km2, Rouge National Urban Park is located in the Rouge River, Petticoat Creek and Duffins Creek watersheds. The Rouge River remains the healthiest river that flows through the City of Toronto, the original park consisted of approximately 40 square kilometres of parkland in Toronto, Markham and Pickering. As Rouge National Urban Park becomes fully operational, former Rouge Park lands will transfer to Parks Canada, most remaining Rouge Park lands are expected to transfer to Parks Canada in 2017. Once fully established, Rouge National Urban Park will be the largest urban protected area in North America.1 km2 in the end of the park in the City of Markham. On May 15,2015 the Rouge National Urban Park Act came into force, the park is open with free admission to visitors 365 days per year, though there are camping fees. In Toronto, the park is accessible by public transportation by TTC, water from glaciers melting 12,000 years ago formed ancestral Lake Ontario, which covered this entire area. A large ice lobe, roughly 20 metres thick, blocked the lake from draining eastward, the ice lobe finally retreated, draining the lake to the St Lawrence River and forming the Great Lakes as we see them today. Glaciation occurred when average temperatures were only 2 -5 °C lower than present. The small decrease to the former temperatures caused big changes to the landscape, changes in average annual temperatures now may seem small, but they could cause major changes to the natural environment in the near future. Outcrops of rock formed during the last glacial period found in Rouge National Urban Park are important to geologists studying seismic activity, faults are visible indicating significant earthquake activity between 80,000 and 13,000 years ago. The human history of Rouge National Urban Park goes back over 10,000 years, palaeolithic nomadic hunters, Iroquoian farmers, early European explorers, and the multicultural suburban population that one can see around the park today are all part of this history. Since humans began living in the area of the present Great Lakes-St Lawrence Lowlands in Ontario, many groups of people made the lands and this route was created by Indigenous Peoples, and later used by early European traders, explorers and settlers. The Rouge River route is not currently marked for the general public, the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail was designated by the Historical Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1969. Bead Hill National Historic Site Bead Hill is a site of an intact 17th century Seneca village and was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1991. The site includes the remains of an Archaic campsite, dating about 3,000 years old, minimal excavations have been carried out, and the site includes a naturally protected midden, which is thought to contain a wealth of material
11.
Markham, Ontario
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Markham is a city in the Regional Municipality of York within the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. Markhams population in 2015 was estimated at 342,000 through The Region of York population census data monitoring, the city is the fourth-most populous community within the Greater Toronto Area after Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton and is the York regions most populous municipality. Markham is also Canadas 16th largest city, Markham changed its status from town to city on July 1,2012. The city gained its name from the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, who named the area after his friend, William Markham, the Archbishop of York from 1776 to 1807. The first European settlement in Markham occurred when William Berczy, a German artist and developer, while they planned to settle in New York, disputes over finances and land tenure led Berczy to negotiate with Simcoe for 64,000 acres in Markham Township in 1794. Through much of Markhams history the community has been described as an agricultural community, a turn towards a more urbanized community within the township began after World War II when the township began to feel the effects of urban encroachment from Toronto. The completion of Highway 404 during the mid-1970s accelerated urban development in Markham, as of 2013 tertiary industry mainly drives Markham. As of 2010 business services employed the largest proportion of workers in Markham – nearly 22% of its labour force, the city also has over 1,100 technology and life-sciences companies, with IBM as the citys largest employer. Each family was granted 200 acres of land, however the lack of roads in the region led many to settle in York, German Mills later became a ghost town. Between 1803 and 1812, another attempt at settling the region was made, the largest group of settlers were Pennsylvania Dutch, most of whom were Mennonites. These highly skilled craftsmen and knowledgeable farmers settled the region and founded Reesorville, in 1825, Reesorville was renamed to Markham having taken the name of the unincorporated village. By 1830, a number of Irish, Scottish and English families began immigrating to Upper Canada. Markhams early years blended the rigours of the frontier with the development of agriculture-based industries, the many rivers and streams in the township soon supported water-powered saw and gristmills and later wooden mills. With improved transportation routes, such as the construction of Yonge Street in the 1800s, in 1842 the township population was 5,698,29,005 acres were under cultivation, and the township had eleven gristmills and twenty-four sawmills. By 1850, the first form of structured municipal government formed in Markham, by 1857, most of the township had been cleared of timber and was under cultivation. Villages like Thornhill, Unionville, and Markham greatly expanded, in 1851 Markham Village was a considerable village, containing between eight and nine hundred inhabitants, pleasantly situated on the Rouge River. A woollen factory, oatmeal mill, barley mill, and distillery, foundry, a temperance hall and four churches. In 1972, Markham was incorporated as a town, as its population skyrocketed due to urban sprawl from Toronto, in 1976, Markhams population was approximately 56,000
12.
Pickering, Ontario
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Pickering is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada, immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region. It was settled by primarily ethnic British colonists, starting in the 1770s, most of its growth has come since the end of World War II, and it has received immigrants from around the globe. This was Aboriginal territory for thousands of years, the Wyandot, who spoke an Iroquoian language, were the historic people living here in the 15th century. Archeological remains of a village have been found here, known as the Draper Site. Later, the Wyandot moved northwest to Georgian Bay, where they established their historic homeland, there they encountered French explorers in the early 17th century, followed by missionaries and fur traders. The Onondaga were among the Five Tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, the British took over Canada following defeat of the French in the Seven Years War, known in the North American front as the French and Indian War. They likely completed survey of the township about 1776, British colonial settlers were steadily migrating into the area from areas of Canada. The town was named after Pickering, North Yorkshire, in the 1813 census, Pickering had 180 residents —40 more than neighbouring Scarborough. A large influx of Quaker immigrants from the eastern United States arrived in the early 1810s, the main thoroughfare at this time was the Kingston Road, which cut through the south of the township on its way from York east to Kingston. Pickering was represented in the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837, one of the leaders, Peter Matthews, had formerly been one of the most prominent members of the community. In 1941, the portion of the township became the independent town of Ajax. Ontario County, Ontario became Durham Region in 1974, and some of the lines were modified. As a result, one of the centres of the original township, Pickering Village, became part of Ajax. Pickering has planned a downtown intensification program which includes new condominium developments around the Pickering GO station, Toronto, Markham, and Rouge Park border Pickering on the west, Ajax borders Pickering on the east, and Lake Ontario forms Pickerings southern boundary. Pickering has experienced growth in the post-war period in the second half of the twentieth century. Torontos continuing growth led to people moving into Pickering. Between 1996 and 2001, the municipality experienced a growth rate of 10.3 percent, population growth has slowed considerably in recent years, growing only slightly between the 2001 and 2011 census. The low population growth is due to the citys development restrictions on land in the northern portion of its area
13.
Downtown Toronto
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Downtown Toronto is the main central business district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is bounded by Bloor Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don River to the east. It is also the centre of the City of Toronto. The Financial District, centred on the intersection of Bay Street and it contains the Toronto Stock Exchange, which is the largest in Canada and seventh in the world by market capitalization. The construction of skyscrapers in Downtown Toronto had started to increase during the 1960s. The retail core of the downtown is the Downtown Yonge area located along Yonge Street from Queen Street to College Street, there is a large cluster of retail centres and shops in the area, including the Toronto Eaton Centre indoor mall. There are an estimated 600 retail stores,150 bars and restaurants, in recent years the area has been experiencing a renaissance as the Business Improvement Area has brought in new retail and improved the cleanliness. The area has seen the opening of the Dundas Square public square. The area includes several live theatres, a complex at Dundas Square. Historical sites and landmarks include the Arts & Letter Club, the Church of the Holy Trinity, Mackenzie House, Maple Leaf Gardens, Old City Hall, the area of St. Lawrence to the east of the financial district is the oldest area of Toronto. It features heritage buildings, theatres, music, dining and many pubs and it is a community of distinct downtown neighbourhoods including the site of the original Town of York, which was Torontos first neighbourhood, dating back to 1793. The area boasts one of the largest concentrations of 19th century buildings in Ontario, further to the east is Corktown and the Distillery District. On Saturday there is a farmers market, to the west of the financial district is the Entertainment District. It is home to hundreds of restaurants, nightclubs, sporting facilities, boutiques, hotels, attractions, the district was formerly an industrial area and was redeveloped for entertainment purposes in the early 1980s, becoming a major centre for entertainment. The redevelopment started with the Mirvish family refurbishing of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the area is now the site of Roy Thomson Hall and the Canadian Broadcasting Centre. The Yorkville area, to the north, north of Bloor Street and the Mink Mile, has more than 700 designer boutiques, spas, restaurants, hotels and it is a former village in its own right and since the early 1970s has developed into an up-scale shopping district. The intersection of Bloor and Yonge Streets is the intersection of the subway lines and is one of the busiest intersections in the city. At the intersection of Avenue Road and Bloor Street is the Royal Ontario Museum, the Harbourfront area to the south was formerly an industrial and railway lands area
14.
Humber Bay
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Humber Bay is a bay of Lake Ontario south of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located between Ontario Place on the east and Mimico Creek to the west, the bay gives its name to Etobicokes Humber Bay neighbourhood. Prior to 1800 the bay was lined with a shore with forest behind it. The area remained natural until later in the 19th century when it developed with boathouses and various roadhouses. The Toronto Harbour Commission reshaped the waterfront, infilling the shoreline by 100 yards from the Humber River east to Wilson Park Avenue, in the 1970s, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority built Humber Bay Park at the foot of Park Lawn Avenue. The only remaining natural shoreline is that east of Wilson Park Avenue, the western riverbank of the Humber where it meets Lake Ontario was the site of an informal settlement of homes within the then Etobicoke Township. This neighbourhood was eventually cleared for the building of the Queen Elizabeth Way highway, along Lake Shore Boulevard West in the same vicinity, the area was settled, then cleared for motels, and now cleared for condominium towers. The area is informally known as Humber Bay. Half Moon Bay is the crescent shaped area between Humber Bay, the Western Channel entering Toronto Harbour, the area was a site of the landing of American troops during the Battle of York on April 27,1813. Today Half Moon Bay is partially covered by infill along Lake Shore Boulevard, Humber Bay Arch Bridge Humber Bay Park Humber River Sunnyside, Toronto Humber Bay Google Satellite Image of the Humber Bay
15.
Bloor Street
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Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River Valley, east of the viaduct, Danforth Avenue continues along the same right-of-way. The street, approximately 25 kilometres long, contains a significant cross-sample of Torontos ethnic communities and it is also home to Torontos famous shopping street, the Mink Mile. The street is named after Joseph Bloore, a brewer and land speculator of this area in the 19th century who founded the Village of Yorkville in 1830 and he is buried at Necropolis Cemetery on Bayview Avenue and Rosedale Valley Road. A portion of Line 2 of the Bloor-Danforth subway line runs along Bloor from Kipling Avenue to Yonge Street, and then continues east along Danforth Avenue. Originally surveyed as the first concession road north of the baseline, it was known by names, including the Tollgate Road, then St. Pauls Road. Although Bloore had an e at the end of his surname, Bloor Street was never spelled with it, the idea of installing bicycle lanes on Bloor had been debated since at least the early 1970s. On 4 May 2016, city council voted 38-3 to implement physically separated bike lanes along a 2. 6-km stretch of the street. Mayor John Tory stated, in support of the project, that if council sought to make Toronto a 21st century city, Bloor street begins at the eastern edge of the Prince Edward Viaduct, which passes over the ravine holding the Don River. The street continues through to the Rosedale Ravine, marking the border of the affluent community of Rosedale. West of Parliament Street, the passes just to the north of the large St. James Town housing project. On the northern side of section of Bloor are the forested slopes of the Rosedale Ravine. Between Sherbourne and Church Streets the street is lined by large office towers and this area has long been the centre of the insurance industry in Canada. West of Church the street becomes commercial and is an important shopping district. In downtown, especially around the intersection with Bay Street, Bloor is one of the most exclusive stretches of real estate in Canada. Rents on the upscale Bloor Street have doubled in 4 years, ranking as the 22nd most expensive location in the world in 2006. Nationally, Vancouvers upscale Robson Street tied with Bloor Street West as the most expensive street in Canada, under the intersection of Yonge and Bloor Streets is the Bloor-Yonge subway station, which is the busiest in the city, serving approximately 368,800 people a day. Above ground, the intersection encompasses commercial stores and condominiums and it generally retains its commercial character, and serves as the main shopping area for most of these communities
16.
The Queensway
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The Queensway is a major street in the municipalities of Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the extension of Queen Street West, after it crosses King Street. The Queensway is a roadway from just east of Parkside Drive westerly to just beyond South Kingsway. The road continues undivided west from the Humber River west to Highway 427 as a four or six-lane thoroughfare, there is a road allowance with hydro lines, cutting into the Mississaugua Golf & Country Club on the shores of the Credit River. In the 1990s, the name Queensway was eliminated on the roads on this allowance west of the river, the street gives its name to Etobicokes The Queensway neighbourhood. Motorists may notice variations in name of the road as seen on signs marking the exit to The Queensway from Highway 427 southbound. Older signs refer to it as Queensway Avenue while newer signs refer to it as The Queensway and it is unclear as to why the older signs use an incorrect name. However, it may be informative to note that the extension of the road into Mississauga to the west is referred to as simply Queensway, Queensway Avenue may have also been used to presumably to avoid confusion with adjacent exit signs for the QEW. After provincial downloading in 1998, there was no longer any need for the Queensway Avenue signage once the eastern QEW was redesignated as the Gardiner Expressway. From 1953 to 1954, The Queensway was signed briefly as Ontario Highway 108 when it was under the-then Department of Highways from Highway 27 and the eastern end of the Queen Elizabeth Way. What would become the Queensway in Mississauga was created in as 1st Concession Road South in 1806 as a dirt trail, the section between Roncesvalles and the Humber River was built in the 1950s, in conjunction with the construction of the Gardiner Expressway. The Queensway was built before the Gardiner to provide an east-west route for traffic while Lake Shore Boulevard was rerouted to accommodate the Gardiner, the section from the Humber River west predates the High Park section and was previously known as Stocks Side Road, and then Queen Street. It formerly connected to Lake Shore Boulevard at the Humber River, to build the Parkside Drive to Ellis Drive section, the Metro government bought 18 acres of High Park from the city. This was in contravention of stipulations by original High Park owner John Howard that the lands be used for parkland only, Metro officials searched for descendants of Howard to obtain their consent. The Queensway became the new location for the streetcar line trackage along the shore in the area. The right-of-way on the Queensway opened to service on July 21,1957. It is the used by the 501 Queen and the 508 Lake Shore services. During the post-2000 period, the Queensway has been subject to new condominium development, an attraction to this development is the proximity to downtown streetcar service
17.
Lake Ontario
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Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Ontario, Canadas most populous province, was named for the lake, in the Wyandot language, ontarío means “Lake of Shining Waters”. Its primary inlet is the Niagara River from Lake Erie, the last in the Great Lakes chain, Lake Ontario serves as the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. Lake Ontario is the easternmost of the Great Lakes and the smallest in surface area and it is the 14th largest lake in the world. When its islands are included, the lake has a shoreline that is 712 miles long. As the last lake in the Great Lakes hydrologic chain, Lake Ontario has the lowest mean elevation of the lakes at 243 feet above sea level,326 feet lower than its neighbor upstream. Its maximum length is 193 statute miles and its width is 53 statute miles. The lakes average depth is 47 fathoms 1 foot, with a depth of 133 fathoms 4 feet. The lakes primary source is the Niagara River, draining Lake Erie, the drainage basin covers 24,720 square miles. As with all the Great Lakes, water levels both within the year and among years. These water level fluctuations are a part of lake ecology. The lake also has an important freshwater fishery, although it has negatively affected by factors including over-fishing, water pollution. Baymouth bars built by prevailing winds and currents have created a significant number of lagoons and sheltered harbors, mostly near Prince Edward County, Ontario, perhaps the best-known example is Toronto Bay, chosen as the site of the Upper Canada capital for its strategic harbour. Other prominent examples include Hamilton Harbour, Irondequoit Bay, Presquile Bay, the bars themselves are the sites of long beaches, such as Sandbanks Provincial Park and Sandy Island Beach State Park. These sand bars are associated with large wetlands, which support large numbers of plant and animal species. Presquile, on the shore of Lake Ontario, is particularly significant in this regard. The lake basin was carved out of soft, weak Silurian-age rocks by the Wisconsin ice sheet during the last ice age, the action of the ice occurred along the pre-glacial Ontarian River valley which had approximately the same orientation as todays basin. As the ice sheet retreated toward the north, it still dammed the St. Lawrence valley outlet and this stage is known as Lake Iroquois
18.
Wood duck
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The wood duck or Carolina duck is a species of perching duck found in North America. It is one of the most colorful North American waterfowl, the wood duck is a medium-sized perching duck. A typical adult is from 47 to 54 cm in length with a wingspan of between 66 to 73 cm and this is about three-quarters of the length of an adult mallard. It shares its genus with the Asian Mandarin duck, the adult male has distinctive multicolored iridescent plumage and red eyes, with a distinctive white flare down the neck. The female, less colorful, has a white eye-ring and a whitish throat. The males call is a whistle, jeeeeee, the females utter a drawn-out, rising squeal, do weep do weep, when flushed. Their breeding habitat is wooded swamps, shallow lakes, marshes or ponds, and creeks in eastern North America and they usually nest in cavities in trees close to water, although they will take advantage of nesting boxes in wetland locations if available. Females line their nests with feathers and other materials. Unlike most other ducks, the duck has sharp claws for perching in trees and can, in southern regions. Females typically lay between 7 and 15 white-tan eggs that incubate for an average of 30 days, after hatching, the ducklings jump down from the nest tree and make their way to water. The mother calls them to her, but does not help them in any way and they prefer nesting over water so the young have a soft landing, but will nest up to 140 m away from the shoreline. The day after they hatch, the climb to the nest entrance. The ducklings can swim and find their own food by this time and these birds feed by dabbling or walking on land. They mainly eat berries, acorns, and seeds, but also insects, the birds are year-round residents in parts of its southern range, but the northern populations migrate south for the winter. They overwinter in the southern United States near the Atlantic coast, 75% of the wood ducks in the Pacific Flyway are non-migratory. There is a feral population in Dublin. The population of the duck was in serious decline in the late 19th century as a result of severe habitat loss. By the beginning of the 20th century, wood ducks had disappeared from much of their former range
19.
Bird ringing
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Bird ringing or bird banding is the attachment of a small, individually numbered metal or plastic tag to the leg or wing of a wild bird to enable individual identification. This helps in keeping track of the movements of the bird and it is common to take measurements and examine conditions of feather molt, subcutaneous fat, age indications and sex during capture for ringing. Other methods of marking birds may also be used to allow for field based identification that does not require capture, the earliest recorded attempts to mark birds were made by Roman soldiers. One instance occurred during the Punic Wars, In 218 BC a crow was released by a besieged garrison, quintus Fabius Pictor used a thread on the birds leg to send a message back. In another instance, an interested in chariot races during the time of Pliny took crows to Volterra,135 miles away. Falconers in the Middle Ages would fit plates on their falcons with seals of their owners, from around 1560 or so, swans were marked with a swan mark, a nick on the bill. Storks injured by arrows traceable to African tribes were found in Germany in 1822, Ringing of birds for scientific purposes was started in 1899 by Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen, a Danish schoolteacher, using aluminum rings on European starlings. The first banding scheme was established in Germany by Johannes Thienemann in 1903 at the Rossitten Bird Observatory on the Baltic Coast of East Prussia and this was followed by Hungary in 1908, Great Britain in 1909, Yugoslavia in 1910 and the Scandinavian countries between 1911 and 1914. In North America John James Audubon and Ernest Thompson Seton were pioneers although their method of marking birds was different from modern ringing, Audubon tied silver threads onto the legs of young eastern phoebes in 1803 while Seton marked snow buntings in Manitoba with ink in 1882. Paul Bartsch of the Smithsonian Institution is credited with the first modern banding in the U. S. he banded 23 black-crowned night herons in 1902. Bird ringing is the used in the UK and in some other parts of Europe, while the term bird banding is more often used in the USA. Organised ringing efforts are called ringing or banding schemes, and the organisations that run them are ringing or banding authorities and those who ring or band birds are known as ringers or banders, and they are typically active at ringing or banding stations. Birds may be captured by being taken as young birds at the nest, or as adults, captured in fine mist nets, baited traps, Heligoland traps, drag nets, cannon nets, raptors may be caught by many methods, including bal-chatri traps. When a bird is caught, a ring of size is attached to the birds leg. The bird is often weighed and measured, examined for data relevant to the ringers project, the birds so tagged can then be identified when they are re-trapped, or found dead, later. When a ringed bird is found, and the ring number read and reported back to the ringer or ringing authority, the finder can contact the address on the ring, give the unique number, and be told the known history of the birds movements. Some national ringing/banding authorities also accept reports by phone or on web sites. The organising body, by collating many such reports, can then determine patterns of movements for large populations
20.
Great blue heron
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It is a rare vagrant to coastal Spain, the Azores, and areas of far southern Europe. An all-white population found only in the Caribbean and Florida was once treated as a separate species, the great blue heron was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, Systema Naturae. The scientific name comes from Latin ardea, and Ancient Greek erodios and it forms a superspecies with this and also with the cocoi heron from South America, which differs in having more extensive black on the head, and a white breast and neck. It has head-to-tail length of 91–137 cm, a wingspan of 167–201 cm, a height of 115–138 cm, in British Columbia, adult males averaged 2.48 kg and adult females 2.11 kg. The feathers on the neck are long and plume-like, it also has plumes on the lower back at the start of the breeding season. The bill is yellowish, becoming orange briefly at the start of the breeding season. Immature birds are duller in color, with a dull blackish-gray crown, and the pattern is only weakly defined, they have no plumes. Among standard measurements, the chord is 43–49.2 cm, the tail is 15. 2–19.5 cm, the culmen is 12. 3–15.2 cm. The herons stride is around 22 cm, almost in a straight line, two of the three front toes are generally closer together. In a track, the front toes, as well as the back, the subspecies differ only slightly in size and plumage tone, with the exception of subspecies A. h. occidentalis, which also has a distinct white morph, known as the great white heron. It is found only in south Florida and some parts of the Caribbean, the great white heron differs from other great blues in bill morphology, head plume length, and in having a total lack of pigment in its plumage. It averages somewhat larger than the sympatric race A. h. wardi and may be the largest race in the species. In a survey of A. h. occidentalis in Florida, males were found to average 3.02 kg and females average 2.57 kg and this is mainly found near salt water, and was long thought to be a separate species. Birds intermediate between the normal morph and the white morph are known as Würdemanns heron, these birds resemble a normal great blue with a white head. The theory that great white herons may be a species from great blue heron has again been given some support by David Sibley. The great white heron could be confused with great egret, but is larger, the reddish egret and little blue heron could be mistaken for the great blue heron, but are much smaller, and lack white on the head and yellow in the bill. In the southern reaches of its range, the great blue sometimes overlaps in range with the closely related, the cocoi is distinguished by a striking white neck and solid black crown, but the duller juveniles are more easily confused. More superficially similar is the slightly smaller grey heron, which may sometimes vagrate to the coasts of North America
21.
Laurentian River System
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The Laurentian River System is an ancient river in southern Ontario, Canada. The river predates the recent ice ages, the river valley was filled with glacial debris. Water still flows down this old valley—underground, the source of the aquifer is the Georgian Bay, approximately 200 kilometres away. In 2003 it was discovered that the section of the Laurentian aquifer reaches under High Park in Toronto. This is believed to be where the Laurentian River System drains into Lake Ontario, the bedrock under Toronto has several dips believed to be carved by the Laurentian River. The Laurentian channel, more than 25 km wide,100 km long and greater than 100 m deep, still lacks data regarding its size and sediments. Sediments the channel range from sands and gravels near the bottom, list of rivers of Ontario Reuters article, about the recent discovery of the aquifer, archived at a water conservation site
22.
Geology
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Geology is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Geology can also refer generally to the study of the features of any terrestrial planet. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth by providing the evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life. Geology also plays a role in engineering and is a major academic discipline. The majority of data comes from research on solid Earth materials. These typically fall into one of two categories, rock and unconsolidated material, the majority of research in geology is associated with the study of rock, as rock provides the primary record of the majority of the geologic history of the Earth. There are three types of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The rock cycle is an important concept in geology which illustrates the relationships between three types of rock, and magma. When a rock crystallizes from melt, it is an igneous rock, the sedimentary rock can then be subsequently turned into a metamorphic rock due to heat and pressure and is then weathered, eroded, deposited, and lithified, ultimately becoming a sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock may also be re-eroded and redeposited, and metamorphic rock may also undergo additional metamorphism, all three types of rocks may be re-melted, when this happens, a new magma is formed, from which an igneous rock may once again crystallize. Geologists also study unlithified material which typically comes from more recent deposits and these materials are superficial deposits which lie above the bedrock. Because of this, the study of material is often known as Quaternary geology. This includes the study of sediment and soils, including studies in geomorphology, sedimentology and this theory is supported by several types of observations, including seafloor spreading, and the global distribution of mountain terrain and seismicity. This coupling between rigid plates moving on the surface of the Earth and the mantle is called plate tectonics. The development of plate tectonics provided a basis for many observations of the solid Earth. Long linear regions of geologic features could be explained as plate boundaries, mid-ocean ridges, high regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal vents and volcanoes exist, were explained as divergent boundaries, where two plates move apart. Arcs of volcanoes and earthquakes were explained as convergent boundaries, where one plate subducts under another, transform boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault system, resulted in widespread powerful earthquakes. Plate tectonics also provided a mechanism for Alfred Wegeners theory of continental drift and they also provided a driving force for crustal deformation, and a new setting for the observations of structural geology
23.
Colborne Lodge
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Colborne Lodge is a historical museum located in an 1836 home in Torontos High Park. John George Howard, an architect, engineer, and prominent Toronto citizen built this house, built in 1836 by City Surveyor John George Howard to house himself and his wife Jemima Frances Meikle, it is perched on the top of a hill overlooking Lake Ontario. When built, the area was considerably to the west of the city, the house is a classic example of the Regency cottage style, and one of the first such buildings in the city. The small house tries to blend in with the landscape around it and it was originally one storey, but Howard later expanded it by adding the upper level. The house was named after Sir John Colborne, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada from 1828 to 1836, the cottage sat on 165 acres of land owned by Howard. His original intent was to start a farm on the property, later, he attempted to subdivide his holdings and sell off small lots to create a new neighbourhood. At the time the area was still a distance west of the city. Howard himself maintained a home in the city. The landscape of the property with its hills, wetlands. Howard and Jemima had no children and thus deeded the park to city in 1873 and he continued to live in his home until his death in 1890. John Howard and his wife are buried in the Howard Tomb, the cairn was designed by Howard, and the fence gate for the cairn is originally from St. Pauls Cathedral in London and was originally designed by the famous architect Christopher Wren. Additional land was purchased by the city in 1873 and 1930, next to the home are the Colborne Lodge Gardens, first created by the Howards. The home is now a run by the City of Toronto. The museum displays the house and furnishings of the 1800s, using much of the Howards own furnishings, the museum holds an annual Harvest Festival, plus summer and march break camps for children. Annually at Halloween, guides put on a Haunted Walk discussing legends of ghost appearances at the Lodge, list of oldest buildings and structures in Toronto Cruikshank, Tom
24.
Oak savanna
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An oak savanna is a type of savanna, or lightly forested grassland, where oaks are the dominant trees. These savannas were maintained historically through wildfires set by lightning or humans, grazing, low precipitation, there are also small areas of oak savannas in other parts of the world. The oak savannas of the Midwestern United States form a zone between the arid Great Plains to the west and the moist broadleaf and mixed forests to the east. The bur oak is the dominant species in northern oak savannas, although black oak, white oak, the dominant tree in the south is usually the black oak, although the chinquapin oak, post oak, and black-jack oak are also common. The flora of the herbaceous layer consists of species associated with tallgrass prairies. There are also a few species that are unique to oak savannas, Oak savannas, because of their mixture of grassland, woodland, and unique savanna species, typically have a higher plant diversity than grasslands and woodlands combined. Before European settlement, the oak savanna, a fire ecology, was extensive and was often a dominant part of the ecosystem. Fires, set by lightning or Native Americans, ensured that the savanna areas did not turn into forests, only trees with a high tolerance for fire, principally certain oak species, were able to survive. On sandy soils, black oak predominated, on rich soils bur oak was the major tree in Midwestern North America. European settlers cleared much of the savanna for agricultural use, in addition, they suppressed the fire cycle. Thus surviving pockets of savanna typically became less like savannas and more like forests or thickets, many oak savanna plant and animal species became extinct or rare. With the rise in interest in conservation, restoration and preservation of surviving areas of oak savanna began. Low intensity, spring prescribed burns have been used since 1964 at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in Minnesota in an attempt to restore the area to an oak savanna. Burned areas are now more savanna like than unburned areas but still have higher densities than apparently existed in presettlement times. Restoration work began in the 1970s in Illinois, followed by work in Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, an excellent example of a restored oak savanna is Wisconsins Pleasant Valley Conservancy State Natural Area. Oak Savannas, Characteristics, Restoration, and Long-Term Management Pleasant Valley Conservancy State Natural Area Oak Savannah Documentary produced by Oregon Field Guide
25.
Quercus velutina
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Quercus velutina, the eastern black oak or more commonly known as simply black oak, is a species in the red oak group of oaks. It is widespread in eastern and central North America, found in all the states from Maine to Texas, inland as far as Ontario, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma. Quercus velutina was previously known as yellow oak due to the pigment in its inner bark. It is a relative of the western black oak found in western North America. Black oak is well known to hybridize with other members of the red oak group of oaks being one parent in at least a dozen different named hybrids. The leaves of the black oak are alternately arranged on the twig and are 10–20 cm long with 5–7 bristle tipped lobes separated by deep U-shaped notches, the upper surface of the leaf is a shiny deep green, the lower is yellowish-brown. There are also stellate hairs on the underside of the leaf that grow in clumps, the inner bark of the black oak contains a yellow pigment called quercitron, which was sold commercially in Europe until the 1940s. Key Characteristics, Sun leaves have very deep u-shaped sinuses, the buds are velvety and covered in white hair. The fruits or acorns of the black oak are medium-sized and broadly rounded, the cap is large and covers almost half of the nut. In southern New England, black oak grows on cool, moist soils, elsewhere it occurs on warm, moist soils. The most widespread soils on which black oak grows are the Udalfs and these soils are derived from glacial materials, sandstones, shales, and limestone and range from heavy clays to loamy sands with some having a high content of rock or chert fragments. Black oak grows best on well drained, silty clay to loam soils, black oak grows on all aspects and slope positions. It grows best in coves and on middle and lower slopes with northerly and easterly aspects and it is found at elevations up to 1,200 m in the southern Appalachians. The most important factors determining site quality for black oak are the thickness and texture of the A horizon, texture of the B horizon, aspect, other factors may be important in localized areas. For example, in northwestern West Virginia increasing precipitation to 1,120 mm resulted in increased site quality, in southern Indiana, decreasing site quality was associated with increasing slope steepness. Near the limits of black oaks range, topographic factors may restrict its distribution, at the western limits black oak is often found only on north and east aspects where moisture conditions are most favorable. In southern Minnesota and Wisconsin it is found only on ridge tops. Black oak is often a predominant species in the canopy of an oak–heath forest, black Oak is the forest cover type that designates pure stands of the species or those in which it makes up more than 50 percent of the stand basal area
26.
Blue spruce
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The blue spruce, green spruce, white spruce, Colorado spruce, or Colorado blue spruce, with the scientific name Picea pungens, is a species of spruce tree. It is native to the Rocky Mountains of the United States, the blue spruce has blue coloured needles and is a coniferous tree. In the wild, Picea pungens grows to about 23 m and it is a columnar or conical evergreen conifer with densely growing horizontal branches. It has scaly grey bark on the trunk with yellowish-brown branches, waxy grey-green leaves, up to 3 cm long, are arranged radially on the shoots which curve upwards. The pale brown cones are up to 10 cm long, the specific epithet pungens means sharply pointed, referring to the leaves. The blue spruce is the State Tree of Colorado, Picea pungens and its many cultivars are often grown as ornamental trees in gardens and parks. It is also grown for the Christmas tree industry, the blue spruce is attacked by two species of Adelges, an aphid-like insect that causes galls to form. Nymphs of the gall adelgid form galls at the base of twigs which resemble miniature pineapples. The larva of the spruce budworm eat the buds and growing shoots while the spruce needle miner hollows out the needles and makes them coalesce in a webbed mass, mites can also infest the blue spruce, especially in a dry summer, causing yellowing of the oldest needles. Another insect pest is the beetle which bores under the bark. It often first attacks trees which have blown over by the wind, the blue spruce is susceptible to several needle casting diseases which cause the needles to turn yellow, mottled or brown before they fall off. Various rust diseases also affect the tree causing yellowing of the needles as well as needle fall, canker caused by Cytospora attacks one of the lower branches first and progressively makes its way higher up the tree. The first symptom is the needles turning reddish-brown and falling off, meanwhile, patches of white resin appear on the bark and the branch eventually dies. In traditional medicine, an infusion of the needles is used to treat colds and this liquid is also used externally for rheumatic pains. Early people used their wood for building
27.
Scots pine
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In the north of its range, it occurs from sea level to 1,000 m, while in the south of its range it is a high altitude mountain tree, growing at 1, 200–2,600 m altitude. It is readily identified by its combination of short, blue-green leaves. The species is found on poorer, sandy soils, rocky outcrops. On fertile sites, Scots pine is out-competed by other, usually spruce or broad-leaved tree species and it is the national tree of Scotland. The bark is thick, scaly dark grey-brown on the lower trunk, the habit of the mature tree is distinctive due to its long, bare and straight trunk topped by a rounded or flat-topped mass of foliage. The lifespan is normally 150–300 years, with the oldest recorded specimens in Lapland, the shoots are light brown, with a spirally arranged scale-like pattern. On vigorous young trees the leaves can be twice as long, leaf persistence varies from two to four years in warmer climates, and up to nine years in subarctic regions. Seedlings up to one year old bear juvenile leaves, these are single, 2–3 cm long, flattened, the cone scales have a flat to pyramidal apophysis, with a small prickle on the umbo. The seeds are blackish, 3–5 mm in length with a pale brown 12–20 mm wing and are released when the open in spring 22–24 months after pollination. The pollen cones are yellow, occasionally pink, 8–12 mm long, over 100 Pinus sylvestris varieties have been described in the botanical literature, but only three or four are now accepted. They differ only minimally in morphology, but with more pronounced differences in genetic analysis, populations in westernmost Scotland are genetically distinct from those in the rest of Scotland and northern Europe, but not sufficiently to have been distinguished as a separate botanical variety. Trees in the far north of the range were formerly treated as var. lapponica. The bulk of the range, from Scotland and Spain to central Siberia, the Balkans, northern Turkey, Crimea, and the Caucasus. Foliage more consistently glaucous all year, not becoming duller in winter, mongolia and adjoining parts of southern Siberia and northwestern China. Foliage duller green, shoots grey-green, leaves occasionally up to 12 cm long, the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain and possibly other Spanish populations Kalenicz. Cones often with scales, but doubtfully distinguishable on morphology. From border regions between Russia and Ukraine, in central and southern Europe, it occurs with numerous additional species, including European black pine, mountain pine, Macedonian pine, and Swiss pine. In the eastern part of its range, it occurs with Siberian pine, the tree spread across the British Isles after the Last Glacial Maximum
28.
Catalpa
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Catalpa, commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate and subtropical regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia. Mostly deciduous trees, they grow to 12–18 metres tall. A 10-year-old sapling stands about 6 metres tall and they can be recognized by their large, heart-shaped to three-lobed leaves, showy white or yellow flowers in broad panicles. In the autumn they bear 20–50 centimetres long fruits that resemble a slender bean pod full of small flat seeds, because of the leaves, they are sometimes confused with the tung tree in the southern U. S. or the invasive Paulownia tomentosa from China. Due to their large size, catalpas are a popular habitat for many birds, providing them good shelter from rain. These trees have few limb droppage, but drop large dark-brown bean pods during late summer, the wood of catalpas is quite soft. Catalpas begin flowering after roughly 3 years, and produce seed pods after approximately 5 years, northern and southern catalpas are very similar in appearance, but the northern species has slightly larger leaves, flowers, and bean pods. Flowering starts after 275 growing degree days, Catalpa ovata from China, with pale yellow flowers, is also planted outside its natural range for ornamental purposes. The name derives from the Muscogee name for the tree, kutuhlpa meaning winged head and is unrelated to the name of the Catawba people. The spellings Catalpa and Catalpah were used by Mark Catesby between 1729 and 1732, and Carl Linnaeus published the name as Bignonia catalpa in 1753. Giovanni Antonio Scopoli established the genus Catalpa in 1777, the bean-like seed pod is the origin of the alternative vernacular names Indian bean tree and cigar tree for Catalpa bignonioides and Catalpa speciosa, respectively. The tree is the source of food for the catalpa sphinx moth. When caterpillars are numerous, infested trees may be completely defoliated, defoliated catalpas produce new leaves readily, but with multiple generations occurring, new foliage may be consumed by subsequent broods. Severe defoliation over several years can cause death of trees. Because the caterpillars are an excellent live bait for fishing, some dedicated anglers plant catalpa mini-orchards for their own source of catawba-worms. Catalpa is also used as a tonewood in guitars. List sources Catalpa speciosa images at bioimages. vanderbilt. edu
29.
Grenadier
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A grenadier was originally a specialized soldier, first established as a distinct role in the mid-to-late 17th century, for the throwing of grenades and sometimes assault operations. At that time grenadiers were chosen from the strongest and largest soldiers, certain countries such as France and Argentina established units of Horse Grenadiers and for a time the British Army had Horse Grenadier Guards. Like their infantry counterparts, these horse-mounted soldiers were chosen for their size. These soldiers operate as part of a fireteam, the concept of throwing grenades may go back to the Ming China, when Chinese soldiers on the Great Wall were reported to be using this weapon. The earliest references to these soldiers in Western armies come from Austria. References also appear in England during the English Civil War, however, it was King Louis XIV of France who made the grenadier an official type of soldier and company during his army reforms late in the 17th century. According to René Chartrand, Lt. Col. Jean Martinet introduced the idea of having men detailed to throw grenades in the Régiment du Roi in 1667 and their clothing being likewise piebald, yellow and red. The first grenades were small iron spheres filled with gunpowder fused with a length of slow-match, understandably, such requirements led to grenadiers being regarded as an elite fighting force. The wide hats with broad brims characteristic of infantry during the late 17th century were discarded and replaced with caps and this was originally to allow the grenadier to sling his musket over his back with greater ease while throwing grenades. Additionally, a brimless hat permitted the greater ease in throwing the grenade overhand. By 1700, grenadiers in the English and other armies had adopted a cap in the shape of a bishops mitre, in addition to grenades, they were equipped with contemporary longarms. The uniform included a tube that held the match for lighting the fuse. Grenade usage declined significantly in the early 18th century, a fact that can be attributed to the effectiveness of massive infantry line tactics. However, the need for assault troops remained, and the existing grenadier companies were used for this purpose. As noted, above average physical size had been considered important for the grenadiers and, in principle, height. In the British regiments of foot during the 18th century the preference was, however, the traditional criterion of size was only resorted to when newly raised regiments required a quick sorting of a mass of new recruits. Transferral to a company generally meant both enhanced status and an increase in subsistence pay. Whether for reasons of appearance or reputation, grenadiers tended to be the showpiece troops of their respective armies, when a regiment was in line formation the grenadiers were always the company which formed on the right flank
30.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
31.
Wetland
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A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink, Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens, and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to people about wetland issues. Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a storm would not be considered a wetland. Wetlands have unique characteristics, they are distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough period each year to support aquatic plants. A more concise definition is a community composed of hydric soil, Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. In environmental decision-making, there are subsets of definitions that are agreed upon to make regulatory and policy decisions. A wetland is an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types, the largest wetlands in the world include the swamp forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia. Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows, Article 2.1, may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands. Although the general definition given above applies around the world, each county, Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. This definition has been used in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, some US states, such as Massachusetts and New York, have separate definitions that may differ from the federal governments. It is not uncommon for a wetland to be dry for long portions of the growing season, the most important factor producing wetlands is flooding
32.
Canada goose
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The Canada goose is a large wild goose species with a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brown body. Native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, its migration occasionally reaches northern Europe and it has been introduced to the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands. Like most geese, the Canada goose is primarily herbivorous and normally migratory, Canada geese are also among the most commonly hunted waterfowl in North America. The Canada goose was one of the species described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae. It belongs to the Branta genus of geese, which species with largely black plumage. Branta is a Latinised form of Old Norse Brandgás, burnt goose, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first citation for the Canada goose dates back to 1772. The Canada goose is colloquially referred to as the Canadian goose. The British Ornithologists Union followed suit in June 2005, the AOU has divided the many subspecies between the two species. This has been aggravated by the overlap between the types of Canada goose and larger types of cackling goose. The old lesser Canada goose was believed to be a hybrid population, with the birds named B. c. taverneri considered a mixture of B. c. minima, B. c. occidentalis. In addition, the barnacle goose has been determined to be a derivative of the cackling goose lineage, the black head and neck with a white chinstrap distinguish the Canada goose from all other goose species, with the exception of the cackling goose and barnacle goose. The seven subspecies of this vary widely in size and plumage details. Some of the races can be hard to distinguish from the cackling goose. However, most subspecies of the goose are considerably smaller. The smallest cackling goose, B. h. minima, is larger than a mallard. In addition to the difference, cackling geese also have a shorter neck and smaller bill. Canada geese range from 75 to 110 cm in length and have a 127–185 cm wingspan. Among standard measurements, the chord can range from 39 to 55 cm, the tarsus can range from 6.9 to 10.6 cm
33.
Algonquian peoples
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The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Today, thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples, historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the St. Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. This grouping consists of the peoples who speak Algonquian languages, before Europeans came into contact, most Algonquian settlements lived by hunting and fishing, although quite a few supplemented their diet by cultivating corn, beans and squash. The Algonquians of New England practiced a seasonal economy, the basic social unit was the village, a few hundred people related by a clan kinship structure. The people moved to locations of greatest natural food supply, often breaking into smaller units or recombining as the circumstances required and this custom resulted in a certain degree of cross-tribal mobility, especially in troubled times. In warm weather, they constructed light wigwams for portability, wigwams are a type of hut which usually had buckskin doors. In the winter, they erected the more substantial long houses and they cached food supplies in more permanent, semi-subterranean structures. In the spring, when the fish were spawning, they left the camps to build villages at coastal locations. In March, they caught smelt in nets and weirs, moving about in birchbark canoes, in April, they netted alewife, sturgeon and salmon. In May, they caught cod with hook and line in the ocean, putting out to sea, the men hunted whales, porpoises, walruses and seals. The women and children gathered scallops, mussels, clams and crabs, from April through October, natives hunted migratory birds and their eggs, Canada geese, brant, mourning doves and others. In July and August they gathered strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, in September, they split into small groups and moved up the streams to the forest. There, the men hunted beaver, caribou, moose and white-tailed deer, in December, when the snows began, the people created larger winter camps in sheltered locations, where they built or reconstructed long houses. February and March were lean times, the tribes in southern New England and other northern latitudes had to rely on cached food. Northerners developed a practice of going hungry for days at a time. Historians hypothesize that this kept the population down, according to Liebigs law. The northerners were food gatherers only, the southern Algonquians of New England relied predominantly on slash-and-burn agriculture. They cleared fields by burning for one or two years of cultivation, after which the moved to another location
34.
Regency architecture
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The period coincides with the Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States and the French Empire style. The style is strictly the late phase of Georgian architecture, and follows closely on from the Neo-classical style of the preceding years, the Georgian period takes its name from the four Kings George of the period 1714–1830, including King George IV. After the decisive victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 ended the wars for good, most Regency architecture comes from this period. Many buildings of the Regency style have a painted stucco facade. In town centres the dominance of the house continued. Elegant wrought iron balconies and bow windows came into fashion as part of this style, further out of town the suburban villa detached house was popular in a range of sizes. For large country houses a range of styles were available. Ashridge, Belvoir Castle and Fonthill Abbey, were all by James Wyatt, sezincote House, designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, is a Neo-Mughal country house for a nabob returned from British India. Brighton Pavilion by John Nash, the home of the Prince Regent, is Indian on the exterior. Until the Church Building Act of 1818, church building had been at a low ebb for over 50 years. The Act allocated some money for new churches required to reflect changes in population. Building of Commissioners churches gathered pace in the 1820s, and continued until the 1850s, the early churches, falling into the Regency period, show a high proportion of Gothic Revival buildings, along with the classically inspired. Strict Greek Revival buildings were mixed with those continuing the modified Baroque, the period saw a great increase in public buildings, at both the national and local level. In London, three bridges were built over the Thames between 1813 and 1819, Vauxhall Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and Southwark Bridge, all financed by toll charges. Shops began to be included systematically into newly planned developments, and he had many pupils who disseminated his style, or in the case of Pugin rebelled against it. In London itself there are streets in the style in the areas around Victoria, Pimlico, Mayfair. John Soane was more individualistic, one of a number of European experimenters in Neoclassicism, the public buildings of George Dance the Younger, City Architect of London from 1768, were precursors of the Regency style, though he designed little himself after 1798. Robert Smirke could produce both classical and Gothic designs, and also worked on public buildings
35.
Great Western Railway (Ontario)
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This article is about a historic railway which operated in the British colony of Canada West, today known as Ontario. For other articles of the name, see Great Western Railway. The Great Western Railway was a historic Canadian railway that operated in Canada West and it was the first railway chartered in the province, receiving its original charter as the London and Gore Railroad on 6 March 1834, before receiving its final name when it was rechartered in 1845. Due to the length of construction, it was beaten into service by six months by the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway, becoming the second operational railroad in the province. Entrepreneur Samuel Zimmerman was instrumental in promoting its construction and Roswell Gardinier Benedict, the original line completed in 1853–54 connected Niagara Falls to Windsor, running by way of Hamilton and London. In 1855 two important additions were made, the opening of the branch to Toronto and rail connections over the newly opened Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, further branches were opened to Sarnia and communities in the Bruce Peninsula. At its peak the Great Western system stretched 1,371 kilometres with its operating base in Hamilton. The city at the Head-of-the-Lake was pivotal in opening up the unpopulated, a substantial part of revenue was the railways function as a bridge line between the New York Central and Michigan Central Railroads, making it significant in North American history. The line was taken over by the Grand Trunk Railway in August 1882, the majority of the mainlines remain in use. The main Niagara Falls–Windsor line is now the Canadian National Railways Grimsby Subdivision, Dundas Subdivision, Chatham Subdivision, the Toronto branch is the Oakville Subdivision, and the Sarnia branch is the Strathroy Subdivision. Great Western Railway, from Niagara Rails Great Western Railway in the Canadian Encyclopedia Great Western Railway Timeline from St Thomas Public Library
36.
Grand Trunk Railway
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The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London, England. The Grand Trunk, its subsidiaries, and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of todays Canadian National Railways, gTRs main line ran from Portland, Maine to Montreal, and then from Montreal to Sarnia, Ontario, where it joined its western subsidiary. The GTR had three important subsidiaries during its lifetime, Central Vermont Railway which operated in Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway which operated in Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Grand Trunk Western Railroad which operated in Michigan, Indiana, a new line to Providence would have allowed for more extensive port facilities than were possible for the Central Vermont at New London, Connecticut. Construction began in 1910 and continued in fits and starts for more than 20 years until finally abandoned in the early 1930s because of the Great Depression. Another important factor was the opposition of the New Haven Railroad. The company was incorporated on November 10,1852, as the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada to build a line between Montreal and Toronto. The charter was extended east to Portland, Maine and west to Sarnia. A line was built to Lévis, via Richmond from Montreal in 1855. In the same year it purchased the Toronto and Guelph Railroad, but the Grand Trunk Railway Company changed the original route of the T&G and extended the line to Sarnia, a hub for Chicago-bound traffic. By July,1856, the section from Sarnia to Toronto opened, by 1859 a ferry service was established across the St. Clair River to Fort Gratiot. The Grand Trunk was one of the factors that pushed British North America towards Confederation. The original colonial economy structured along the route from the Maritimes up the St. Lawrence River. The explosive growth in trade during the 1850s within the United Province of Canada, during this time the GTR extended its line to Lévis further east to Rivière-du-Loup. By 1860, the Grand Trunk was on the verge of bankruptcy, on the eve of the American Civil War, it stretched from Sarnia in the west to Rivière-du-Loup in the east and Portland in the southeast. Thus the British North America Act,1867 included the provision for an Intercolonial Railway to link with the Grand Trunk at Rivière-du-Loup, by 1880, the Grand Trunk Railway system stretched all the way from Portland in the east to Chicago, Illinois, in the west. Several impressive construction feats were associated with the GTR, the first successful bridging of the St. Clair River, connecting Sarnia, Ontario, the latter work opened in August 1890 and replaced the railcar ferry at the same location. S. To overcome the difference, the GTR experimented with a form of Variable gauge axles called adjustable gauge trucks
37.
Lake Simcoe
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Lake Simcoe is a lake in Southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth-largest lake wholly in the province, after Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul, and Lake Nipissing. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th century the lake was called Ouentironk by the Wyandot people. It was also known as Lake Toronto until it was renamed by John Graves Simcoe, the lake is bordered by Simcoe County, Durham Region, and York Region. The city of Barrie is located on Kempenfelt Bay, and Orillia is located at the entrance to Lake Couchiching, the watershed draining into the lake contains a population of roughly half a million people, including the northern portion of the Greater Toronto Area. The town of Innisfil occupies the western south of Barrie. Lake Simcoe is a remnant of a bigger, prehistoric lake known as Lake Algonquin. This lakes basin also included Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Nipigon, the melting of an ice dam at the close of the last ice age greatly reduced water levels in the region, leaving the lakes of today. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th century, the Severn River, its outlet stream, was once called Rivière de Toronto which flows into Georgian Bays Severn Sound, then called the Baie de Toronto. The later French traders referred to it as Lac aux Claies and it was renamed by John Graves Simcoe in 1793, not in honour of himself, but in memory of his father, Captain John Simcoe. The lake is about 30 kilometres long,25 kilometres wide and 722 square kilometres in area and it is shaped somewhat like a fist with the index finger and thumb extended. The thumb forms Kempenfelt Bay on the west, the wrist Lake Couchiching to the north, fresh-cut saplings placed in the water and sediments would have sprouted branches and leaves, persisting for some time, leading to a place where trees stand in the water. A number of southern Ontario rivers flow, generally north, into the lake, from the east, the Talbot River, part of the Trent-Severn Waterway is the most important river draining into Lake Simcoe, connecting the lake with the Kawartha lakes system and Lake Ontario. From its connection to Lake Couchiching, the Severn River is the drainage from the lake to Georgian Bay. The canal locks of the Trent-Severn Waterway make this connection navigable, the lake is dotted with several smaller islands, including Thorah Island, Strawberry Island, Snake Island, and Fox Island. Pope John Paul II stayed on Strawberry Island for four days just before World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto. Before the completion of the Trent Severn Waterway, the level on Lake Simcoe was quite low enabling residents to cross in wagons or walk in ankle deep water to the mainland. However, when it was completed, the water increased by several feet. The lake has little activity, but sees many recreational uses
38.
Chapman and Oxley
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Chapman and Oxley was a Toronto based architectural firm which responsible for designing a number of prominent buildings in the city in the 1920s and 1930s. Even with the departure of Chapman, the firms last projects appeared to be in the late 1940s, the firm was founded by architects Alfred Hirschfelder Chapman and James Morrow Oxley in 1919. A. H. Chapman was born in Toronto to the Chapman family whom owned Grenadier Ice Company at Grenadier Pond, Chapman apprenticed under architect Beaumont Jarvis. He then went to architecture in Paris. From 1920 he was head of the family business Chapmans Limited, Chapman served as President of the Ontario Association of Architects for two consecutive periods,1929 and 1930. Chapman retired in 1943 and died in 1949 and he is buried at St. Georges Church and Cemetery in Sutton, Ontario. His other son Christopher Chapman was a writer, director and cinematographer, J. M. Oxley attended the University of Toronto as an engineering student. He fought in World War I in the Canadian Expeditionary Force from 1915-1918, Oxley was also president of the Mississauga Golf & Country Club from 1939 to 1940
39.
High Park Forest School
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High Park Forest School is a former special school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a school founded to provide a boost to children who were tubercular or had other physical detriments, today, it is an outdoor environmental education facility run by a local non-profit organization called the High Park Nature Centre. It is located in High Park west of downtown, on Colborne Lodge Road, the High Park Forest School opened in 1915. It was initially a place for children with tuberculosis but through the years it became a school for underprivileged and/or undernourished children. Another forest school had opened, in 1913, in Victoria Park. Another open-air school, Orde Street, was opened in 1917, the forest schools ceased existence as a school for poor and/or undernourished children in 1963. In 1970, the area around the school was the site of an International Sculpture Symposium, several sculptures are still in place around the school. Others have been moved to other locations, after the 1960s, the building was used by various organizations and was vacated in 2013. In 2015, High Park Nature Centre moved into the building, children attended the school Monday through Saturday. On Saturdays, if the weather was good the children were all bussed to Sunnyside Swimming Pool where they were entitled to free admission and free swimming. At lunch time, the children would line up and go into the building, entering through the main right hand door in the picture where whey were seated according to age. They were served a hot meal, milk and a cod liver oil pill every day. After lunch, the children would line up once again inside the building, pick up their bed rolls which consisted of a pillow, a sheet and an army-type blanket. There were cots set up near each classroom and the children would take their bedrolls to the cots for a nap of two hours. When they awoke from their naps, they returned their bedrolls to the room inside where they were stored, then lined up to wash hands and faces and this was followed by an hour of playtime. baseball, dodge ball and many other sporting activities. After play time, the returned to their classrooms for more education and then were served the whole wheat bread. When 4 oclock came. the teachers would escort each child up to Bloor Street, all the things the Toronto Board of Education felt poor and/or undernourished children would miss out on without this program
40.
New England
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New England is a geographical region comprising six states of the northeast United States, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and south, the Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Its largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston, which also includes Worcester, Manchester, ten years later, more Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquin allies in North America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts and surrounding areas experienced one of the most infamous cases of hysteria in the history of the Western Hemisphere. The Boston Tea Party was a protest to which Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government, the confrontation led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. Each state is subdivided into small incorporated municipalities known as towns. The only unincorporated areas in the region exist in the populated northern regions of Vermont, New Hampshire. The region is one of the U. S. Census Bureaus nine regional divisions, the earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages. Prominent tribes included the Abenaki, Mikmaq, Penobscot, Pequot, Mohegans, Narragansett Indians, Pocumtuck, prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Western Abenakis inhabited New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their principal town was Norridgewock in present-day Maine, the Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Narragansett and smaller tribes under Narragansett sovereignty lived in most of modern-day Rhode Island, west of Narragansett Bay, the Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket. The Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, and the Mohegan and Pequot tribes in the Connecticut region, the Connecticut River Valley includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and linked different indigenous communities culturally, linguistically, and politically. As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began exploring the New World, trading metal, glass, on April 10,1606, King James I of England issued a charter for each of the Virginia Companies, London and Plymouth. These were privately funded ventures, intended to land for England, conduct trade. In 1620, Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts was settled by Pilgrims from the Mayflower, in 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region New England. As the first colonists arrived in Plymouth, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact, the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629 with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630. Massachusetts Puritans began to settle in Connecticut as early as 1633, roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for heresy, led a group south, and founded Providence Plantation in the area that became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636
41.
Atlantic Canada
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The population of the four Atlantic provinces in 2016 was about 2,300,000 on half a million km2. The provinces combined had an approximate GDP of $110.308 billion in 2011, the first Premier of Newfoundland, Joey Smallwood, coined the term Atlantic Canada when Newfoundland joined the Dominion of Canada in 1949. Today Atlantic Canada is a distinct region of Canada, with the original founding cultures of Celtic, English and French remaining strong. Although Quebec has physical Atlantic coasts on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Ungava Bay,2016 census figures for Metropolitan Areas and Population Centres in Atlantic Canada. The list includes communities above 15,000, by Metropolitan Area population, or 10,000 by Population Centre population
42.
Red Ocher people
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The Red Ocher people were an indigenous people of North America. Turkey-tails are large flint blades of a distinct type and it is believed that Red Ocher people spoke an ancestral form of the Algonquian languages. The people today known as Red Ocher were first identified by the University of Chicago in 1937, since then intermittent archaeological works have been published dealing with specific sub-topics within the burial culture and supported by more reliable AMS carbon dates. Nevertheless, many important archaeological questions regarding the Red Ocher burial manifestation, Red Paint People Cole, Fay-Cooper, and Deuel, Thorne. Ritzenthaler, Robert, E. and Quimby, George, I, the Red Ocher Culture of the Upper Great Lakes And Adjacent Areas
43.
St Paul's Cathedral
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St Pauls Cathedral, London, is an Anglican cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London. It sits on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade 1 listed building and its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD604. The present church, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren and its construction, completed in Wrens lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the City after the Great Fire of London. The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London and its dome, framed by the spires of Wrens City churches, dominated the skyline for 300 years. At 365 feet high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1967, the dome is among the highest in the world. St Pauls is the second-largest church building in area in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral, St Pauls Cathedral occupies a significant place in the national identity. It is the subject of much promotional material, as well as of images of the dome surrounded by the smoke. St Pauls Cathedral is a church with hourly prayer and daily services. The entry fee is £18 for adults, the location of Londiniums original cathedral is unknown. In 1995, however, a large and ornate 5th century building on Tower Hill was excavated, the Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden argued that a temple to the goddess Diana had stood during Roman times on the site occupied by the medieval St Pauls Cathedral. Wren reported that he had no trace of any such temple during the works to build the new cathedral after the Great Fire. Bede records that in AD604 St Augustine consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht. Sæberhts uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a dedicated to St Paul in London. It is assumed, although unproven, that this first Anglo-Saxon cathedral stood on the site as the later medieval. On the death of Sæberht in about 616, his sons expelled Mellitus from London. The fate of the first cathedral building is unknown and this building, or a successor, was destroyed by fire in 962, but rebuilt in the same year. King Æthelred the Unready was buried in the cathedral on his death in 1016, the cathedral was burnt, with much of the city, in a fire in 1087, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The fourth St Pauls, generally referred to as Old St Pauls, was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire, a further fire in 1136 disrupted the work, and the new cathedral was not consecrated until 1240
44.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
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Nathan Phillips (politician)
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Nathan Phillips, QC was a Canadian politician and popular Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, from 1955 to 1962. A lawyer by training, Phillips was first elected to Toronto City Council in 1926, born in Brockville, Ontario, the son of Jacob Phillips and Mary Rosenbloom, he was educated in public and high schools in Cornwall, Ontario. In 1908, he articled with the Cornwall lawyer, Robert Smith and he graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1913 and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1914. He practised law in Toronto and was appointed a Kings Counsel in 1929. He married Esther Lyons in 1917 and they had three children, Lewis, born on December 30,1917, Madeline, born on October 20,1919, tragically on Mothers Day, May 12,1929, Lewis was struck by an automobile and instantly killed. Howard Phillips was a City of Toronto alderman for Ward 3 from 1949 to 1956, later, Phillips also ran unsuccessfully in St. Andrew riding during the 1937 and 1948 provincial elections. Phillips was first elected to Toronto City Council in 1926 and was the first Toronto mayor of the Jewish faith and he served as mayor from 1955 until he lost to Donald Summerville in 1962, after thirty-six years in municipal politics. Phillips was dubbed mayor of all the people, until his election all mayors had been Protestant and every mayor in the twentieth century had been members of the Orange Order, which dominated the citys political and business establishment. Phillips became mayor by defeating Mayor Leslie Howard Saunders, an Orangeman, Phillips victory marked a turning point in Toronto history and its transformation from a Protestant, staunchly British and conservative city to a modern multicultural metropolis. On March 23,1959, Phillips welcomed exiled King Peter II of Yugoslavia on a tour to City Hall. Under Philips direction, the City of Toronto pursued an agenda of demolishing heritage structures throughout the city in order to modernize. Old City Hall itself narrowly escaped being demolished and Fort York survived a vote to be moved to Coronation Park after the Toronto Historical Association rallied public support. Nathan Philips is best remembered as the force behind the construction of Torontos New City Hall. Nathan Phillips Square was named in honour of the mayor, in 2005 a proposal to sell the naming rights to Nathan Phillips Square unleashed a storm of opposition from many Torontonians, including Phillips grandchildren. Mayor of All the People McClelland and Stewart,1967
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Corktown Common
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Corktown Common is a park in the south eastern portion of the West Don Lands neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada which opened in 2013. It borders the Don River to the east and it was built on remediated industrial lands to be the centrepiece of a new emerging neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. It also provides a barrier to flooding from the Don River, the West Don Lands, including what is now the Corktown Common, was once an industrialized area, once notably occupied by the pork processing plants of the William Davies Company. The deindustrialization of the 1970s saw most of the land abandoned, in 1987, the West Don Lands was expropriated by the provincial government in order to build a new community. The industrial history meant the soil was polluted and needed expensive cleanup before any residents could live there. The risk of flooding from the Don River also required a barrier to be erected. By 1992 the city and province had already invested some $350 million in purchasing and clearing the site, the real estate market had also collapsed, making any private investment unlikely. The new provincial government of Bob Rae thus decided to cancel the project in 1992, the park was built on an abandoned post-industrial site and is the centrepiece of the redevelopment of the West Don Lands by Waterfront Toronto. The West Don Lands was a site in the flood plain of the Don River that required soil remediation. The Corktown Commons berm is a flood protection landform which was started in 2007 and was necessary before any development of the West Don Lands could occur. Its name before it opened was the Don River Park, the park was designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, and opened with over 700 trees and thousands of shrubs and grasses that are native to Southern Ontarios Carolinian forest ecosystem. The park contains playgrounds, a pad, an athletic field, open lawns, a marsh, tables, benches, a barbecue, a fireplace, bike paths, a boardwalk. There is an art sculpture titled No Shoes by Mark di Suvero. On the river side of the park, there is a 3.2 hectare urban prairie, the Corktown Common is located east of Bayview Avenue, south of King Street, west of GO/CN railroad lines and the Don River to the rail corridor in the south. There is also an entrance from the Don Valley Trail, Corktown Common Official Website Friends of Corktown Common
