Niagara Peninsular Essay

Railways in Niagara Peninsular and its impact on the region
Before the arrival a railways in Niagara peninsula The major influence in the Niagara region were the canals. Notably the First Welland Canal built by William Hamilton Merritt opened in the year 1829, which enabled the ships to avoid the Niagara Falls. The Welland canal transformed the Niagara peninsular, many rural regions industrialized, rural areas started to transform into urban areas. There was an inflow of construction workers who arrived in Niagara mostly of Irish origins in order to work for building the canal, this resulted in increase in population. The canal simplified movement of people and goods. They no longer had the need to rely entirely on poor roads and the portage
As a result of this new mode of transportation, business along the Portage Road diminished drastically. In order to complete with the canal, the businessmen of the Portage Road formed the Erie & Ontario Railroad Company. (Erie & Ontario Railroad)
At the start of the 1840s railways had shown lot of potential for the future. It was a comfortable means of travel, it allowed to travel and transport goods rapidly from place to place. In 1845, for example, about 50,000 visitors were recorded going to Niagara Falls, amounting to a doubling of tourists in five years. The two big railway lines of that time, Canada’s Great Western and the New York Rochester and Niagara (called the New York Central today), acknowledged the potential and both planned separate routes to the famous waterfalls. (Werner)
In the year 1853, The Great Western Railway (GWR) began operations from Niagara Falls through Thorold, St. Catharines, Grimsby and Hamilton to London. The Great Western Railroad became the first railway across southern Ontario. (Niagara Falls railroads). In 1854 the railway line was stretched from London to Chatham and Windsor. In 1855 the GWR accessed New York state railways using the Railway Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls. This was the second suspension bridge at the Niagara Falls but it was the first that supported a
The railways also helped in some new settlements such as Brookfield, Netherby, and Stevensville on the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway line.
Smaller towns with railroads, such as Beamsville, Jordan and Vineland, experienced substantial growth thanks to improved access to them. These towns now could access larger centres such as Hamilton. The large contribution to urban growth was that the railways connected the larger existing centres with smaller rural areas and enhanced their growth potential. The town of Merritton, which had sprung up as a canal shanty town which housed construction workers, now became an important centre due to its new railway bridge linking the two