August 2019 Shipping canals have been an important part of water transportation networks for personal and commercial usage across the world from the early days of shipping to the modern day. Most of the early canals have by larger canals to handle bigger modern ships or other forms of transportation have made them unnecessary or …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/ghosts-of-the-past-abandoned-shipping-canals-in-ontario-and-quebec/
August 2019 On Toronto’s waterfront, at Sir Casimir Gzowski Park on Lakeshore Blvd West, sits a small red-roofed building, done in a French château-style of architecture. This building was once one of the iconic buildings that made up the Joy Gas Station chain of service centres in the Greater Toronto Area of southern Ontario. Designed …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/ode-to-joy-the-last-joy-gas-station-restored-to-its-former-glory/
August 2019 Martello Towers, are small, round defensive forts, usually costal forts, that were built in the early 19th century across the British Empire. The two story forts stood up to 40 feet high and usually had a garrison of 15 to 25 men and an officer. Their round design with thick, solid masonry walls …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/kingstons-martello-towers-monuments-to-the-early-defences-of-british-north-america/
August 2019 There is great debate as to which town holds the distinction of having the smallest jail in Canada, or even in North America. Several towns have been bold enough to declare themselves the winner of the smallest jail, with mere inches difference between all of them. Small tourist towns such as Tweed, Creemore, …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/who-has-the-smallest-jail-in-north-america/
July 2019 René Lévesque was a small man in stature, standing only 5’3″, but his legacy is larger than life. As founder of the Parti Québécois and later the 23rd Premier of Quebec from November 1976 to October 1985, Lévesque was at the head of the sovereignty movement in Quebec, in which Quebec sought to …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/humorous-tradition-for-a-legendary-politician/
July 2019 The City of Brockville in eastern Ontario has the distinction of having Canada’s first railway tunnel in one of Canada’s oldest railway centres. Construction of the 1, 700 foot tunnel began in September 1854, thirteen years before Confederation, but it wasn’t until 31 December 1860 that the tunnel was open for service. The …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/canadas-first-railway-tunnel-now-a-tourist-attraction/
July 2019 In the Village of Eugenia, Ontario, an unincorporated municipality in Artemesia Township, beside the Beaver River at the top of Eugenia Falls in the Eugenia Falls Conservation Area, sits a lone stone arch seemingly serving no purpose. This stone arch was once the entrance to a long-vanished tunnel intended to be used in …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/monument-to-a-failed-hydro-project-the-mystery-arch-in-eugenia/
July 2019 On Gilmore Road in Fort Erie, Ontario, behind the Fleet Canada plant, sits an abandoned 2500 foot runway that once served as a private airfield for one of Canada’s oldest aerospace manufactures: Fleet Aircraft of Canada, Ltd., the predecessor company of Fleet Canada Inc. Fleet Aircraft of Canada officially opened for operations on …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/abandoned-airfield-played-a-role-in-canadas-aviation-industry/
June 2019 Eckley Miners’ Village offers an insight into life in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region, with an authentic coal mining patch town. Coal companies would establish a coal town or coal patch to house the workers that toiled in the company mines. Many of these “towns” were very exploitative of their workers, as the company …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/a-walk-through-the-past-eckley-miners-village/
June 2019 “By the time we got to Woodstock We were half a million strong And everywhere was a song and a celebration” –From “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell In May 2019, I finally made the pilgrimage to the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Festival outside of Bethel, New York. The site looks …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/peace-music-at-yazgurs-farm-woodstock-50-years-later/
