Yonge Street

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 17, 2024

1. Yonge Street Marker

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Ontario

Ontario.

Canada.

America,

Woods,

Hemisphere,

World,

Anglosphere.

colony,

France,

Confederacy,

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Land.

Excerpt: 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, an expert on ancient Roman roads. Its construction

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 17, 2024

2. Rainy River Tourist Information Center

The marker is mounted on the front façade of the Rainy River Tourist Information Center. This road, Atwood Avenue (Provincial Highway 11), was known previously as the far western extension of Toronto's Yonge Street.

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. 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 1,896 km 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.

Excerpt: For several years, Ontario’s Yonge Street was listed by the Guinness World Records as the world’s longest street, that is, until this claim was allegedly refuted in 1999, when it was pointed out that once it merges with Ontario Highway 11, it can no longer be referred to as Yonge St. Stretching all the way from the shores of Lake Ontario at downtown

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 17, 2024

3. Rainy River Municipal Office (on the east side of the Tourist Information Center)

Note the Yonge Street sign in front of the Rainy River Municipal Office building. This building — previously the Rainy River Railroad Station — was addressed on Yonge Street in the past.

Toronto to the US state of Minnesota, Yonge Street (or at least the longest version of it) has a total length of a whopping 1,896 kilometers (1,178 miles), 160 kilometers longer than the distance between Berlin and Istanbul! Be that as it may, even if you exclude Yonge’s controversial parts, it is still among the world’s longest streets, with 56 kilometers from Toronto’s Queens Quay to the Holland River. Named after Sir George Yonge, the former British secretary of war, the street dates back to as early as 1794, making it also one of the oldest streets in Toronto.

Excerpt: Aside from the strange name (pronounced “Young”), Yonge Street is notable for its dubious claim to fame, as the longest street in the world. It begins at Queen’s Quay, and heads north to Barrie, but at one time all of Ontario Route 11 was loosely associated with it. Route 11 curves widely around Lake Superior, and ends up at the Minnesota border. If Yonge Street and Route 11 were synonymous, then the 1,896 kilometer

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(1,178 mile) road would have a chance at legitimately claiming the honor. But, they are not. The Guinness world record folks gave up on trying to justify Yonge Street’s claim, and removed it from the book, somewhere around the turn of the 21st century.