When did York become Toronto?
Name of Toronto
John Graves Simcoe identified the area as a strategic location to base a new capital for Upper Canada, believing Newark to be susceptible to American invasion. A garrison was established at Garrison Creek, on the western entrance to the docks of Toronto Harbour, in 1793; this later became Fort York. The settlement it defended was renamed York on August 26, 1793, as Simcoe favoured English names over those of First Nations languages,[2] in honour of Prince Frederick, Duke of York.[2] Residents petitioned to change the name back to Toronto, and in 1834 the city was incorporated with its original name.[3] The name York lived on through the name of York County (which was later split into Metropolitan Toronto and York Region), and continues to live on through the names of several districts within the city, including Yorkville, East York, and North York, the latter two suburbs that were formally amalgamated into the "megacity" of Toronto on January 1, 1998.
Metropolitan Street Railway (Toronto)
On January 1, 1909, the T&YRR opened a extension of the Metropolitan line from Jackson's Point to Sutton. The Metropolitan line was now at its maximum extent.
In 1912-1913, the T&YRR partially constructed a diversion line west of Yonge Street from Farnham Avenue to the CPR crosstown line in the Town of North Toronto, and then abandoned the project. The T&YRR had laid double-track from Farnham Avenue and Yonge Street south to Walker Avenue with a crossover north of Walker. Starting in 1911, there was a dispute between the T&YRR and the town, which wanted a double-track line but objected to its being on a private right-of-way crossing multiple sidestreets at grade. The railway did not want to build a double-track line on Yonge Street, one reason being it would have to pay the town $600 per mile per track. In 1912, North Toronto voters relieved the railway of the requirement for double track. A legal decision at Osgoode Hall overrode the permission the Ontario Rail Board gave to the railway to build the diversion. However, after the Town of North Toronto was annexed by the City of Toronto in 1912, the dispute over double track continued between the railway and the city.