Yonge Street
Canada · Americas
About Yonge Street
Yonge Street is the main street of Toronto, Canada. It divides the city into east and west streets. Numbering for east-west streets begins at Yonge Street and increases in either direction.
Begun in 1794, it is one of the oldest streets in the city, but few of its current buildings date back to much before 1900.
Within the City of Toronto, Yonge Street is roughly 15 km (9.3 mi) long.
Under Yonge Street runs the eastern branch of Line 1 Yonge–University, serving nearly the entire length of the street in Toronto. You can drive along this street if you want (give up trying to find parking), but the smart way to explore Yonge is on foot, with a TTC day pass to whisk you between the spots you want to see.
Yonge Street travel guide
Understand
Until 1999, the Guinness Book of World Records repeated the urban myth that Yonge Street was the longest main street in the world, running from Toronto's harbour to Lake Superior, a distance of 1,896 km (1,178 mi). It was erroneously assumed that Yonge Street ran the full length of provincial highway 11 (actually, it only runs a distance of 88 km (55 mi) to Barrie, Ontario on Lake Simcoe). Nonetheless, the myth is enshrined by a bronze map set into the sidewalk at the southwest corner of Yonge and Dundas Streets.
History Yonge Street was fundamental in the original planning and settlement of western Upper Canada (now Ontario) in the 1790s, forming the basis of the concession roads in Ontario today. The street was named by Upper Canada's first colonial administrator, John Graves Simcoe, for his friend Sir George Yonge, an expert on ancient Roman roads. Yonge was a member of the British Parliament, and acted as Governor of the Cape Colony (South Africa) for a short period from 1799 to 1801. He never visited Toronto or Canada.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia, travel guide fromWikivoyage (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.