Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, John Graves Simcoe, named the street for his friend Sir George Yonge.
Once the southernmost leg of provincial Highway 11, linking the provincial capital with northern Ontario, Yonge Street has been referred to as "Main Street Ontario". Until 1999, the Guinness Book of World Records repeated the popular misconception that Yonge Street was long, making it the longest street in the world; this was due to a conflation of Yonge Street with the rest of Ontario's Highway 11. The street is only long. Due to provincial downgrading in the 1990s, no section of Yonge Street is marked as a provincial highway.
Its construction has been designated as an Event of National Historic Significance in Canada. Yonge Street was integral to the original planning and settlement of western Upper Canada in the 1790s, forming the basis of the concession roads in Ontario today. In Toronto and York Region, Yonge Street is the north–south baseline from which street numbering is reckoned east and west. The eastern branch of the subway Line 1 Yonge–University serves nearly the entire length of the street in Toronto; it serves as the spine of the Toronto subway system, linking to suburban commuter systems such as the Viva Blue BRT. The street is a commercial main thoroughfare rather than a ceremonial one, with the Downtown Yonge shopping and entertainment district containing landmarks such as the Eaton Centre and Sankofa Square.
Route description
Yonge Street originates on the northern shore of Toronto Bay at Queens Quay as a four-lane arterial road proceeding north. Toronto's Harbourfront is built on landfill extended into the bay. The former industrial area has been converted from port, rail and industrial uses to a dense, residential, high-rise community. Indeed, Canada's future tallest building, SkyTower at Pinnacle One Yonge, is located near the beginning of the street and has the address 1 Yonge Street. The elevated Gardiner Expressway and the congested rail lines of the Toronto railway viaduct on their approach to Union Station pass over Yonge Street. The road rises slightly near Front Street, marking the pre-landfill shoreline. Here, at the southern edge of the central business district, is the Dominion Public Building, the Meridian Hall and the Hockey Hall of Fame, the latter housed in a former Bank of Montreal office, once Canada's largest bank branch. Beyond Front Street, the road passes through the east side of the Financial District, which holds many of Canada's tallest buildings, and passes an entrance to the Allen Lambert Galleria.Between Front and Queen Streets, Yonge Street is bounded by historic and commercial buildings, many serving the large weekday workforce concentrated here. These include the flagship Toronto locations of the Hudson's Bay Company and Saks Fifth Avenue, both in the historic Simpson's building. Yonge Street's entire west side, from Queen to Dundas Streets, is occupied by the Eaton Centre, a multi-storey indoor mall featuring shops along its Yonge Street frontage. The east side has two historic performance venues, the Ed Mirvish Theatre and the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres. In addition, Massey Hall is just to the east on Shuter Street.
Opposite the north end of the Eaton Centre lies Sankofa Square. The area now comprising the square was cleared of several small commercial buildings and redeveloped in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It has been outfitted with large video screens, and developed with retail shopping arcades, fountains and seating in a bid to become "Toronto's Times Square". It is the site of numerous public events.
Another stretch of busy retail lines both sides of Yonge Street north of Dundas Street. The density of businesses diminishes north of Gerrard Street; residential towers with some ground-floor commercial uses flank this section. The Art Deco College Park building, a former shopping complex of the T. Eaton Company, occupies much of the west side of the street from Gerrard Street north to College Street. It was converted into a residential and commercial complex after the building of the Eaton Centre.
From College Street north to Bloor Street, Yonge Street serves smaller street-level retail, mostly in two- to three-storey buildings of a hundred years' vintage. The businesses here, unlike the large chains that dominate south of Gerrard Street, are mostly small independent shops and serve a dense residential community on either side of Yonge Street.
The intersection of Yonge and Bloor streets is a major crossroads of Toronto, informally considered the northern edge of the downtown core. Subway Line 2 Bloor–Danforth intersects the Yonge line here, with the resulting transfers between lines making Bloor–Yonge station the busiest in the city. The northeast quadrant features the Hudson's Bay Centre office and retail complex, including a Hudson's Bay Company Hudson's Bay store. The northwest quadrant has the Two Bloor West office tower. The southeast quadrant has a condominium tower constructed in the early 21st century, and the southwestern quadrant is being developed for a condominium: The One. The Mink Mile's borders extend from Yonge to Avenue Road along Bloor. The intersection of Yonge and Bloor streets is a "scramble"-type intersection, which allows pedestrians to cross from any corner to any other corner.
Immediately north of Bloor, the street is part of the old town of Yorkville, today a major shopping district extending west of Yonge Street along Cumberland and Bloor streets. North of Yorkville, densities and traffic decrease somewhat and the speed limit increases slightly as Yonge Street forms the main street of Summerhill, which together with Rosedale to the east is noted for its opulent residences. The area is marked by the historic North Toronto railway station, formerly served by the Canadian Pacific Railway and now the location of a Liquor Control Board of Ontario store. The CPR route parallels the foot of the Iroquois shoreline escarpment, which Yonge Street ascends here toward Midtown. Development along Yonge to St. Clair Avenue is mostly two- and three-storey buildings with ground-floor commercial uses of varying types. South of St. Clair once stood the Deer Park carhouse for the Metropolitan Street Railway Metropolitan line. It was sold by the Toronto Transportation Commission to the Badminton and Racquet Club of Toronto in 1924 and mostly destroyed by a fire in 2017.
From approximately St. Clair Avenue to Yonge Boulevard, Yonge Street is central to the former suburb municipality of North Toronto, now widely referred to as Midtown, which is divided into several local neighbourhoods. Yonge Street along this stretch features mixed low-scale residential, retail, and commercial buildings. The intersection at Eglinton Avenue has become a focal point, serving as a high-density residential, commercial and transit hub. The site of Montgomery's Tavern is nearby, the location of a significant clash in the Upper Canada Rebellion and is marked as a National Historic Site. The tavern was later replaced by the Postal Station K Building, now a podium for Montgomery Square condominium complex.
North of Yonge Boulevard, Yonge Street traverses the deep forested ravine of the West Don Valley at Hoggs Hollow, a formidable obstacle in pioneer days and the site of one of the last of the former toll gates. The lower-density residential community and park-like setting here represent an interlude between North Toronto and the newer high-rise district beyond, towering over the valley. Canada's busiest section of highway spans the valley via the Hogg's Hollow Bridge. Leaving the valley north of Highway 401, densities and traffic both significantly increase on entering North York City Centre, the downtown core of the former suburban city of North York. North York Centre features numerous residential and office towers, most with ground-floor commercial uses, with some stretches of older two-storey buildings, many slated for redevelopment. Slightly under halfway up Yonge Street from Sheppard to Finch on the west side is the North York Civic Centre complex and the adjacent North York Centre office and retail towers. These lands contain Mel Lastman Square, the actual North York district municipal offices, the North York Central Library and the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts. The street widens to a six-lane urban arterial road through North York Centre, passing inner-suburb transit hubs at Sheppard and Avenues.
From Finch Avenue to Stouffville Road, Yonge Street is a suburban commercial strip, passing Highway 407 two kilometres north of Steeles. This segment is a busy suburban arterial, interrupted by the original town centres of suburban communities such as Thornhill and Richmond Hill. Various stretches of Yonge Street throughout this area contain residential high-rise buildings of varying ages, with some currently under development. Continuous urbanization ends just south of Stouffville Road, and the street passes through brief semi-rural exurban stretches between Richmond Hill, Aurora, Newmarket, and Holland Landing, passing a number of kettle lakes and traversing the crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine, thence leaving the Lake Ontario basin. Yonge passes through the core of Aurora, and in the regional seat of Newmarket, Yonge serves as the town's main suburban artery, passing through low-density residential and commercial areas, bypassing its core to the west. North of Green Lane, Regional Road 1 deviates from the original baseline north of Lake Ontario, bypassing the centre of Holland Landing with a northwest heading and thereby circumnavigating Cook's Bay and the lower Holland Marsh, through exurban areas en route to Bradford. The bypass was constructed in 1959.