1.
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
2.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
3.
Toronto streetcar system
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The Toronto streetcar system is a network of eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. It is both the largest and busiest light-rail system in North America as well as the largest tramway in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, the network is concentrated primarily in Downtown Toronto and in proximity to the citys waterfront. Much of the route network dates to the 19th century. Most of Torontos streetcar routes operate on trackage shared with vehicular traffic. Some routes operate wholly or partly within their own rights-of-way, at the eight downtown stations, excepting Union, from Queens Park to College on Line 1 Yonge–University, streetcars stop on the street outside the station entrances. Torontos streetcars provide most of the downtown cores surface transit service, four of the TTCs five most heavily used surface routes are streetcar routes. In 2013, ridership on the system totalled more than 100 million. In 1861, the City of Toronto issued a transit franchise for a horse-drawn street railway. Alexander Eastons Toronto Street Railway opened the first street railway line in Canada on September 11,1861, operating from Yorkville Town Hall to the St. Lawrence Market. At the end of the TSR franchise, the City government ran the railway for eight months, the TRC was the first operator of horseless streetcars in Toronto. The first electric car ran on August 15,1892, there came to be problems with interpretation of the franchise terms for the City. By 1912, the city limits had extended significantly, with the annexation of communities to the north and the east and the west. After many attempts to force the TRC to serve these areas, the City created its own street railway operation, the Toronto Civic Railways to do so, repeated court battles forced the TRC to build new cars, but they were of old design. When the TRC franchise ended in 1921, the Toronto Transportation Commission was created, the TTC began in 1921 as solely a streetcar operation, with the bulk of the routes acquired from the private TRC and merged with the publicly operated Toronto Civic Railways. In 1923, the TTC took over the Lambton, Davenport and Weston routes of the Toronto Suburban Railway, in 1925, routes were operated on behalf of the Township of York, but the TTC was contracted to operate them. One of these routes was the former TSR Weston route, in 1927, the TTC became the operator of three radial lines of the former Toronto and York Radial Railway. The last TTC-operated radial closed in 1948, after the Second World War, many cities across North America and Europe began to eliminate their streetcar systems in favour of buses. In 1966, the TTC announced plans to eliminate all streetcar routes by 1980, Streetcars were considered out of date, and their elimination in almost all other cities made it hard to buy new vehicles and maintain the existing ones
4.
Horsecar
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A horsecar, or horse-drawn tram, is an animal-powered tram or streetcar. These were local versions of the lines and picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route. The horse-drawn streetcar combined the low cost, flexibility, and safety of power with the efficiency, smoothness. The first tram services in the world were started by the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales, fare-paying passengers were carried on a line between Oystermouth, Mumbles and Swansea Docks from 1807. The Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad carried passengers although its purpose was freight. Many companies adopted a design of a partly enclosed double-decker carriage hauled by two horses, the last horse-drawn tram was retired from London in 1915. Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century, the last horse used for shunting on British Railways was retired on 21 February 1967 in Newmarket, Suffolk. In the United States the very first streetcar appeared on November 26,1832, on the New York, the cars were designed by John Stephenson of New Rochelle, New York and constructed at his company in New York City. The earliest streetcars used horses and sometimes mules, usually two as a team, to haul the cars, rarely, other animals were tried, including humans in emergency circumstances. By the mid-1880s, there were 415 street railway companies in the USA operating over 6,000 miles of track, by 1890 New Yorkers took 297 horsecar rides per capita per year. The average street car horse had a life expectancy of two years. In 1861, Toronto Street Railway horsecars replaced horse driven omnibuses as a public transit mode in Toronto, starting in 1892, electric streetcars emerged in Toronto and by 1894 the TSR stopped operating horsecars in Toronto. The first horse-drawn rail cars on the continent of Europe were operated from 1828 by the České Budějovice - Linz railway, Europe saw a proliferation of horsecar use for new tram services from the mid-1860s, with many towns building new networks. Tropical plantations made extensive use of animal-powered trams for passengers and freight, often employing the Decauville narrow-gauge portable track system. In some cases these systems were extensive and evolved into interurban tram networks. Surviving examples may be found in both the Yucatan and Brazil, since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. Horsecars were largely replaced by electric-powered streetcars following the invention by Frank J. Sprague of a trolley system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires. His spring-loaded trolley pole used a wheel to travel along the wire, in late 1887 and early 1888, using his trolley system, Sprague installed the first successful large electric street railway system in Richmond, Virginia
5.
James Ross (Canadian businessman)
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James Leveson Ross, of Montreal, was a Scottish-born Canadian civil engineer, businessman and philanthropist. He oversaw the electrification of railways in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saint John, Birmingham, Mexico City. He was president of the Dominion Bridge Company, the Mexican Power Company etc and he was Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the 17th Duke of Yorks Royal Canadian Hussars and Governor of McGill University and the Royal Victoria Hospital. He was a collector of the Old Masters and president of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He owned several yachts including two named Glencairn and became the first Canadian to be made a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. He funded the construction of the Ross Memorial Wing at the Royal Vic, the Ross Memorial Hospital and Nurses Home at Lindsay, Ontario, and he lived in the Golden Square Mile. Born at Cromarty, Scotland, in 1848 and he was the eldest son of Captain John R. Ross, merchant and shipowner, and his wife Mary B. McKeddie, daughter of Captain McKeddie, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Ross was educated at Inverness Royal Academy and afterwards trained as a civil engineer in England. He worked for a while in a railway, harbour and water works before coming to the United States in 1868 to apply his talents to the rapidly expanding North American railway industry, in 1870, he was appointed engineer, then chief engineer of the Ulster and Delaware Railway. After marrying in 1872, Ross became chief engineer of the Wisconsin Central Railway, on Lake Ontario, Ross came into contact with George Laidlaw and several other well-connected railway promoters who persuaded him to come to Canada. He was appointed engineer to Laidlaws Victoria Railway and in 1879 he built the Credit Valley Railway. Starting at Swift Current, they built 623 miles of railway to Craigellachie, British Columbia, by November 7,1885, over the Rocky Mountains, the Selkirks and the Gold Range. Completing the project a year ahead of time, Van Horne commented at the opening of the line that Rosss record meant millions to the Canadian Pacific Railway. In achieving this, Ross stuck up a friendship with Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal. Ross then completed extensions of the CPR west of the Rockies to enable access to the Pacific. At the time of his death, he was still a director of the CPR and was said to have been the companys largest shareholder. The partners also negotiated the incorporation of land development companies, including the Calgary and Edmonton Land Company. After moving to Montreal in 1888, in partnership with William Mackenzie, he oversaw the electrification of railways in Montreal, St. John
6.
Carriage
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A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn, litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for passenger use and for comfort or elegance. It may be light, smart and fast or heavy, large, Carriages normally have suspension using leaf springs, elliptical springs or leather strapping. A public passenger vehicle would not usually be called a carriage – terms for such include stagecoach, charabanc, working vehicles such as the wagon and cart share important parts of the history of the carriage, as does too the fast chariot. The word carriage is from Old Northern French cariage, to carry in a vehicle, a carriage is sometimes called a team, as in horse and team. A carriage with its horse is a rig, an elegant horse-drawn carriage with its retinue of servants is an equipage. A carriage together with the horses, harness and attendants is a turnout or setout, a procession of carriages is a cavalcade. Some horsecarts found in Celtic graves show hints that their platforms were suspended elastically, four-wheeled wagons were used in prehistoric Europe, and their form known from excavations suggests that the basic construction techniques of wheel and undercarriage were established then. The earliest recorded sort of carriage was the chariot, reaching Mesopotamia as early as 1900 BC, used typically for warfare by Egyptians, the near Easterners and Europeans, it was essentially a two-wheeled light basin carrying one or two passengers, drawn by one to two horses. It is likely that Roman carriages employed some form of suspension on chains or leather straps, in the kingdom of the Zhou Dynasty the Warring States were also known to have used carriages as transportation. With the decline of these civilizations these techniques almost disappeared, the medieval carriage was typically a four-wheeled wagon type, with a rounded top similar in appearance to the Conestoga Wagon familiar from the USA. Sharing the traditional form of wheels and undercarriage known since the Bronze Age, suspension is recorded in visual images and written accounts from the 14th century, and was in widespread use by the 15th century. Carriages were largely used by royalty, aristocrats, and could be decorated and gilded. These carriages were on four wheels often and were pulled by two to four depending on how they were decorated. Wood and iron were the requirements needed to build a carriage. Another form of carriage was the pageant wagon of the 14th century, historians debate on the structure and size of pageant wagons, however, they are generally miniature house-like structures that rest on four to six wheels depending on the size of the wagon. Historians also debate whether or not pageant wagons were built with pivotal axle systems, whether it was a four- or six-wheel pageant wagon, most historians maintain that pivotal axle systems were implemented on pageant wagons because many roads were often winding with some sharp turns. Six wheel pageant wagons also represent another innovation in carriages, they were one of the first carriages to use multiple pivotal axles, pivotal axles were used on the front set of wheels and the middle set of wheels
7.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
8.
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
9.
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
10.
Train
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A train is a form of rail transport consisting of a series of vehicles that usually runs along a rail track to transport cargo or passengers. Motive power is provided by a locomotive or individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Although historically steam propulsion dominated, the most common forms are diesel and electric locomotives. Other energy sources include horses, engine or water-driven rope or wire winch, gravity, pneumatics, batteries, the word train comes from the Old French trahiner, from the Latin trahere pull, draw. There are various types of trains that are designed for particular purposes, a train may consist of a combination of one or more locomotives and attached railroad cars, or a self-propelled multiple unit. The first trains were rope-hauled, gravity powered or pulled by horses, from the early 19th century almost all were powered by steam locomotives. A passenger train is one which includes passenger-carrying vehicles which can often be very long, one notable and growing long-distance train category is high-speed rail. In order to much faster operation over 500 km/h, innovative Maglev technology has been researched for years. In most countries, such as the United Kingdom, the distinction between a tramway and a railway is precise and defined in law, a freight train uses freight cars to transport goods or materials. Freight and passengers may be carried in the train in a mixed consist. Rail cars and machinery used for maintenance and repair of tracks, etc. are termed maintenance of way equipment, similarly, dedicated trains may be used to provide support services to stations along a train line, such as garbage or revenue collection. There are various types of trains that are designed for particular purposes, a train can consist of a combination of one or more locomotives and attached railroad cars, or a self-propelled multiple unit. Trains can also be hauled by horses, pulled by a cable, special kinds of trains running on corresponding special railways are atmospheric railways, monorails, high-speed railways, maglev, rubber-tired underground, funicular and cog railways. A passenger train may consist of one or several locomotives and coaches, alternatively, a train may consist entirely of passenger carrying coaches, some or all of which are powered as a multiple unit. In many parts of the world, particularly the Far East and Europe, freight trains are composed of wagons or trucks rather than carriages, though some parcel and mail trains are outwardly more like passenger trains. Trains can also be mixed, comprising both passenger accommodation and freight vehicles, special trains are also used for track maintenance, in some places, this is called maintenance of way. A train with a locomotive attached at each end is described as top and tailed, where a second locomotive is attached temporarily to assist a train up steep banks or grades it is referred to as banking in the UK, or helper service in North America. Recently, many loaded trains in the United States have been made up one or more locomotives in the middle or at the rear of the train
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