Toronto - Fort York - Where It All Began

[M II A II R II K]

[Dr Awesomesauce]

It's embarrassing what we've done to Fort York - obscuring it with a raised expressway like that. When are we gonna pull that thing down?

Thanks for the pics by the way.

[Coldrsx]

Yup. Disgraceful.

[Rico Rommheim]

Wow I had no idea 18th century Fort York had 50 storey glass towers!

[nito]

This is a pretty depressing thread for a site which arguably plays a critical and defining moment in Canadian history (and the formation of Canadian identity); only to be defiled by an elevated motorway.

[Nite]

I like the contrast between old and new around fort york.
You get to see where to city came from and where it is going in an in your face way.

[giovanni sasso]

i'm glad to see others had the same reaction i did.



for being toronto's oldest historic site, this is completely embarrassing.

[HHC]

Quite embarrassing indeed.

[Nouvellecosse]

Very interesting photos! Some great skyline shots there as well. Thank you to M II A II R II K for posting.

So does the expressway actually run through the historic site, or just close by it?

[citizen j]

Toronto was not kind to its past in the middle of the 20th century. At least Fort York survived albeit in a marred state (it stood in the way of another planned expressway that was subsequently cancelled), which is more than one can say for other significant historic sites and structures in the city that were demolished from the 1950s to the 1970s. The list is long and sad -- a catalogue of thoughtless acts of sanctioned vandalism. Unfortunately, Toronto is hardly unique in this regard. I was recently reminded of the loss of Penn Station while watching a documentary on the photograpy of Berenice Abbott in New York in the 1930s.

[M II A II R II K]

More so depressing if there was more to the original site that was desecrated recently for highways and other imposing things. If enough of the original site is retained then what goes on around it perpetually changes.

[ChiTownCity]

Now I'm curious. What did Fort York used to look like?

[isaidso]

Being central, it was inevitable that large buildings would one day surround it. The problem is the Gardiner Expressway. It would have been acceptable if they hadn't built that next to it.

[le calmar]

From what I can see this is where the fort used to be, but there is nothing left of it. I had no idea it was in this area, I thought it was somewhere in the CBD.