Here are the fascinating finds unearthed from below Toronto's Union Station
While Toronto’s Union Station remains seemingly forever under construction, crews working on the latest upgrades are uncovering some pretty remarkable artifacts from hundreds of years back in the city’s history.
After the completion of the Union Station Revitalization Project in 2021, the hub was thrown into another three years of refurbishments with the Union Station Enhancement Project, led by Metrolinx.
The job includes reconfiguring the platforms, adding a new passenger concourse, and more to accommodate increased GO service across the network.
As commuters deal with more temporary headaches for long-term gain, some of those involved in the revamp are enjoying the unique perks of digging deep into the ground at such a historic location — finding all sorts of century-old goodies.
While some may only think of it as a transit stop, Union Station is a treasure trove of artifacts associated with the history of Toronto’s waterfront. https://t.co/0YiPTETgOW pic.twitter.com/lSZxcopO24
— GO Expansion (@GOExpansion) August 14, 2024
Metrolinx shared photos of some of its latest discoveries on Thursday, and a new video detailed the station’s past.
“As the city developed into the later 19th century and even into the early 20th century, the railroads wanted to move in and use the land adjacent to the lake, but there was no space for them,” the principal archaeologist appointed to the team excavating the swath of land just south of the station explains.
“So they had a massive land-making operation and filled in the northern portion of the lake. Where we’re standing now used to be the lake.”
Among the infill dumped to extend the city southward was tons of refuse from the era, some of which has withstood the test of time while buried many metres underground.
Workers have found and catalogued everything from ceramic food containers and bottles to eyeglasses and guns, along with remnants of the actual wharf structures that used to sit along the old shoreline.
It’s similar stuff to what Waterfront Toronto has uncovered while razing the Port Lands for the ongoing flood protection and island-building initiative a bit further east.
Here is all the cool old stuff Toronto is finding while digging up the Port Lands right now https://t.co/OG5wUIvyWr #Toronto #PortLands
— blogTO (@blogTO) May 5, 2021
“The city that we’re digging up is not the same city that exists here today,” the video continues. “Archaeology is for the public benefit… it’s for everybody to be able to better understand the history of the development of the City of Toronto.”
This (hopefully) final phase of the work on Union is expected to wrap up in late 2025. Afterwards, up to 80 trains per hour will run through the station, four times the current volume.