Toronto, Canada’s largest city of around 2.8 million people, had humble beginnings.
Formerly known as the Town of York, the city was incorporated 180 years ago.
The city’s first mayor was William Lyon Mackenzie and at the time, its boundaries were Bathurst Street to the west, Dundas Street to the north, and Parliament Street to the east (the southern boundary was the waterfront).
Toronto had only five wards at the time, named after Christian Saints. There are now 44.
Map: A look at the city’s original wards.
Currently there are 9,520 different streets or, 5,617 km of road covering 27.4 per cent of the city’s area. But in 1834 it was a much more modest footprint.
Map: A look at the city’s original streets.
Toronto’s first year was tough: During the summer of 1834 a cholera epidemic hit. The population at the time was around 10,000 and close to 1,000 died over the span of the 1834 outbreak and another two years earlier.
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