1333, 3437 CANADA (Ontario) / UNITED STATES (New York) - Niagara Falls

1333

Located on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, on the border between Canada and the United States, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York, Niagara Falls is in fact an assembly of three waterfalls: the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls (furthest on the postcard 1333) lie mostly on the Canadian side and the American Falls (closest on the postcard 1333) entirely on the American side, separated by Goat Island.

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The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also located on the American side, separated from the other waterfalls by Luna Island. The boundary line was drawn through Horseshoe Falls in 1819, but it has long been in dispute due to natural erosion and construction. The combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 50m. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

0011, 2584 CANADA (Ontario) - Downtown Toronto

2584 Downtown Toronto seen from the Western Channel,
with CN Tower and Rogers Centre

 

Posted on 13.10.2011, 29.05.2016

Located entirely within the former municipality of Old Toronto, Downtown Toronto is approximately bounded by Bloor Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don River to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west. The area is made up of the city's largest concentration of skyscrapers and businesses. Toronto has a prominent skyline and, as of 2015, has the third most skyscrapers in North America exceeding 200m in height, behind New York City and Chicago, respectively.

0011 Downtown Toronto in evening

In the 1970s, Toronto experienced major economic growth and surpassed Montreal to become the largest city in Canada. Many international and domestic businesses relocated to Toronto and created massive new skyscrapers in downtown. The area's First Canadian Place is the tallest building in Canada at height of 298m. The CN Tower, once the tallest free-standing structure in the world, remains the tallest such structure in the Americas, standing at 553.33m. Other notable buildings include Scotia Plaza, TD Centre, Commerce Court, the Royal Bank Plaza, The Bay's flagship store, and the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

2563 CANADA (Ontario) - Casa Loma In Toronto

Built between 1911 and 1914 as a residence for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, Casa Loma (Spanish for Hill House) is a Gothic Revival style house and gardens in midtown Toronto. The architect was E. J. Lennox, who designed several other city landmarks. It is a museum, but also a popular venue to hold wedding ceremony and rites. An underground tunnel connects Casa Loma to the Hunting Lodge and to the stables (garage, potting shed, stalls, carriage room and tack rooms).

2560 CANADA (Ontario) - Ontario Place in Toronto

Ontario Place is a multiple use site under development, located on the shore of  Lake Ontario, to the south-west of downtown Toronto. It opened on May 22, 1971 and consists of three artificially constructed, landscaped islands. Currently the site includes the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, event facility "Atlantis", and a marina. Buildings on the site include "pods" designed by Eb Zeidler and a geodesic dome, that contained the Cinesphere IMAX theatre.

2524 CANADA (Ontario) - Toronto's Chinatown

Toronto's Chinatown is an ethnic enclave in Downtown Toronto, with a high concentration of ethnic Chinese residents and businesses extending along Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue, west of the centre of the city. A second area known as East Chinatown, extends along both streets from the intersection of Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street. First developed in the late 19th century, the main Chinatown is now one of the largest Chinatowns in North America.

2496 CANADA (Ontario) - Spirit of Windsor

Located on the southern shore of the Detroit River (which flows from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie), directly across the river from Detroit (Michigan), Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada. It is divided in two by the Ouellette Avenue, its historic main commercial street, which runs north-south, perpendicular to the Detroit River. At the end from the river of the avenue is Dieppe Gardens, one of the 180 parks of the city, in which is resting a Pacific type 4-6-2 steam locomotive named Spirit of Windsor.

1203 CANADA (Ontario) - Toronto's Old City Hall reflected in Cadillac Fairview Tower

Toronto's Old City Hall, one of the largest buildings in Toronto and the largest civic building in North America upon completion in 1899, housed the city council until 1966. Designed by prominent Toronto architect Edward James Lennox in a variation of Romanesque Revival architecture known as Richardsonian Romanesque, the building took more than a decade to build and cost more than $2.5 million. It can be described as a massive square quad with a courtyard in the middle. Situated at the front elevation, its clock tower was placed off centre to provide a terminating vista for Bay Street. The entire building has ornamentation derived from ancient Roman art. There are structural decorations used by the different colors of stone.Part of the Toronto Eaton Centre, a shopping mall and office complex in downtown Toronto, named after the now-defunct Eaton's department store chain, Cadillac Fairview Tower is a skyscraper designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects, and Zeidler Partnership Architects and completed in 1982. It has 36 floors and 142m hight.

1021 CANADA (Ontario) - Ontario Legislative Building in Toronto

Located in Queen's Park, on that part south of Wellesley Street which is the former site of King's College (later the University of Toronto), and which is leased from the university by the provincial Crown for a "peppercorn" payment of CAD$1 per annum on a 999 year term, the Ontario Legislative Building houses the viceregal suite of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and offices for members of the provincial parliament. As is known, Canada is a constitutional monarchy, in which head of state is the Monarch (since February 6, 1952 Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada), so the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario is the viceregal representative in Ontario of the monarch.

0916 CANADA (Ontario) - Post Office and Town Clock at Eganville

Eganville is a small community occupying a deep limestone valley carved at the Fifth Chute of the Bonnechere River, in the township of Bonnechere Valley (formed in 2001 by the union of Grattan, Sebastopol, South Algona and Eganville). The power of the river has been harnessed since 1848, but it was John Egan's grist mill that gets credit for stimulating the town's growth, which took his name. In 1911, a great fire destroyed many of the buildings in Eganville. A year later, the Municipal Building was erected, and served as the village post office until 1973. In 2001 the building became the home of the Bonnechere Museum and one of the most well known symbols of Eganville.

0746 CANADA (Ontario) - Rideau Canal (UNESCO WHS)

The Rideau Canal, also known as the Rideau Waterway, connects the city of Ottawa on the Ottawa River with the city of Kingston, on Lake Ontario, using sections of major rivers, including the Rideau and the Cataraqui, as well as some lakes. It was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States, but it remains in use today primarily for pleasure boating, with most of its original structures (canal, the locks, associated buildings and forts) intact. It is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America, and in 2007 it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

0073 CANADA (Ontario) – Toronto's Union Station

"You build your stations like we build our cathedrals", said Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, during the official opening of Toronto’s Union Station, on August 6, 1927. He received the first ticket sold at Union Station, to Alberta for a cost of $71.20, which today would cost over $1,100.

Union Station, located in the heart of the City on Front and Bay street, is the central hub for all inter-city transit in Toronto, and the busiest passenger transportation facility in Canada, serving approximately quarter of a million passengers each day. The building of the station came as a result of the great fire in 1904, which demolished 14 acres of the downtown manufacturing and warehouse district. The Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk Railways negotiated with the City of Toronto for control of some of this land, and construction began in 1914, but the WWI and the collapse of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1919 delayed completion until 1921.

Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, it was the largest and most opulent station erected in Canada. Monumental in design, the great Hall features a coffered vault ceiling of Gustavino tiles. The shape of the ceiling is echoed in the four-storey, barrel-vaulted windows on the east and west walls. Mid-way up the north and south walls are carved names of the cities that were then serviced by the Canadian Pacific Railways and the Canadian National Railways, the government-owned railway that replaced the Grand Trunk. The list alternates from side to side, naming the cities from east to west.

The interior walls are of Zumbro stone from Missouri; the floors are Tennessee marble, laid in a herringbone pattern. The exterior walls of the station are Indiana and Queenston limestone. Each of the 22 Bedford limestone columns weights 75 tons and is 40 feet high. In front of the station, as seen in the photography realised by Tim Peters, is an iron sculpture celebrating Christopher Columbus.

Union Station has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada since 1975.

About the stamp I wrote here.


sender: Pompilian Tofilescu

0044 CANADA (Ontario) - The colors of autumn in High Park in Toronto

"In Canada the autumn is the most beautiful season", sais Pompilian, the friend who sent me this postcard. And it seems that he is right. There's never a grey day when autumn sweeps over Ontario. Between mid-September to mid-October, the landscape becomes a fiery tapestry ablaze with golden hues, crimson reds and fiery oranges. And it seems that he is right, and High Park in Toronto is an example that could not be more appropriate.