Keith Bridge ERA Ad

The history of transportation in Newmarket is now on display through eight bronzed plaques installed along the Keith Bridge on Davis Drive. Be sure to take a moment this summer to walk along the Keith Bridge on Davis Drive, view the public art and learn about the rich history of our Town. The newly installed plaques are a key part of the Town’s ongoing Canada 150 celebrations and were created by Artist Hans Honegger and sculptor Carolyn Butts of Bon Eco Design. This project was made possible by the expansion of the Keith Bridge to accommodate the Viva Rapid Transit system. For more information about the Keith Bridge, please visit newmarket.ca PLAQUE PLAQUE Ten thousand years ago families The river that flows under this of hunters were regularly passing bridge once carried canoes through this area in pursuit of laden with trade goods. big game animals. The landscape would have felt much For thousands of years First like the Arctic tundra of today. Nations peoples travelled through and made camp in The retreat of the Laurentide Ice this area. The East Holland Sheet at the end of the last ice River became the gateway of age revealed a ribbon of gravel the canoe route to the Upper known as the Oak Ridges Great Lakes and the northern Moraine. Present-day Newmarket sits on the north face of this moraine woods. A network of footpaths passed through present-day and on the shoreline of what was once an enormous glacial lake. This moraine served as a corridor for both migrating animals and Paleo Newmarket and followed the Rouge, Don and Humber Rivers, Indians. The Barren-Ground caribou supplied these first people with giving access to Lake Ontario. Extensive trade involved the food and material for tools, clothing and shelter. exchange of birchbark canoes, baskets, animal hides and furs for squash, corn, beans and tobacco. The top of the plaque illustrates the Oak Ridges Moraine separating the glacial lakes of Algonquin (later Simcoe and Huron) and Iroquois (later Lake Ontario). Newmarket (round dot) and Paleo Indian archaeological sites (triangles) can be found along the historic shoreline of Lake Algonquin. Future Lake Simcoe is outlined. PLAQUE PLAQUE You once would have arrived In the late 1800s you would in this area along footpaths have heard and felt the that were eventually rumble of trains passing transformed into muddy through, bringing goods and roads on which oxen pulled people to this developing carts heavy with household manufacturing centre. goods and supplies. In 1853 the Ontario, Simcoe Newmarket is part of a & Huron Union Railroad historic trail network that Company arrived in this area linked Lake Ontario with Lake to find rich farmland and a Huron. In 1794 John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor village that was already established as a market centre. Train of Upper Canada, directed that a military road be surveyed to go service, the first in Ontario, allowed the shipping of agricultural and from York (Toronto) to North Bay. Land grants along this route manufactured products to outside communities. The railway also required that settlers clear the land for road construction. The road brought raw materials and people to support the manufacturing - known as Yonge Street - provided the access that helped with the industries being established in Newmarket. The steam locomotive transportation of materials and agricultural goods from this “Toronto” was the first engine built in the British Empire outside of thriving “new market.” England. It serviced this line until its retirement in 1881. PLAQUE PLAQUE In 1899 the first electric The digging of a canal began railway cars rolled down the on the Holland River just centre of Main Street, below this bridge in 1906. sparking the commuter Newmarket businesses and movement of people and armers had high hopes of goods from Newmarket to shipping their products by markets in Toronto and boat to save money. across North America. Over three hundred teams of For 40 years the Metropolitan horses were needed to carry Street Railway Company away tonnes of dirt and rock provided light rail service and sold electricity to the “new market.” removed by steam-powered shovel. This public works project The rail line, known as the “Radial,” was one of several lines became so large and expensive that, five years after it began, the radiating from Toronto to the countryside. The electric line helped standing federal government was defeated and the canal project Newmarket become the meeting place for farmers to do business was cancelled. Remaining pieces of concrete and ironwork from with buyers. Tacked on behind passenger cars were boxcars of the turning basin, lift locks and three swing bridges can be milk, ice, grain, produce and industrial materials. Tourists heading discovered along the banks of the river below. north to Lake Simcoe travelled over the “radial arch” spanning the Holland River. The arch of the trestle bridge is all that remains of one of the first reinforced concrete structures in Canada. In 1930 the Radial surrendered to the popularity of cars and trucks. PLAQUE PLAQUE By the 1960s, the automobile This bridge, reconstructed in had become the preferred 2015, spans the Holland mode of transportation. River and supports a rapid Travellers and locals transit system that links to a frequently met at community larger transit network gathering spots such as Bell’s throughout Ontario. Corner, featuring a motel, Through integrating restaurant and gas station pedestrian trails, bike paths, located at the corner of roads for driving and Yonge Street and Davis Drive. carpooling, rapidways for The decade provided some of the great classic automobile styles public transit and mobility hubs to connect them all, we are and shapes. Car travel was made easy by the network of newly linking our residents and businesses to other parts of the province, paved roads reaching beyond the city limits and across the as well as to each other. Newmarket will continue to see further continent. As suburban living spread to include small towns such growth and development in housing, businesses, transit, recreation, as Newmarket, and as people and products had the freedom to parks and green space in our Urban Growth Centres in the years to move, the economy surged full speed ahead. come. This development will support an increase in population and in jobs - specifically in the knowledge-based employment sectors in and around our hospital and YORK main business corridors. It is another phase of our transportation story built upon paths that have crisscrossed this spot for more than I0,000 years. This public art project was generously supported by the following sponsors: Allstone Quarry, R.V. Anderson Associates Limited, The Sterling Group, GO Transit, Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution Limited, Royal Bank of Canada, Shanahan Ford Lincoln and York Region Rapid Transit Corporation..

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