10 Useless little known facts I've gathered about Toronto while in Toronto

The bridge buried in Trinity Bellwoods park.

1. There is an old bridge in Trinity Bellwoods park that is buried, simply because it would cost less than tearing it out.

2. Streetcars have sandboxes inside of them. That's right, the current streetcar fleet of the TTC has small containers of sand that they can "shoot" onto the tracks when they need more traction.

3. Although Sam the Record Man closed down - part of Ryerson's purchase agreement is that they have to use the iconic sign on the building that goes in the historic store's site. Not just that, but it has to be outdoors, facing either Yonge or Gould street.

4. You can rent out abandoned subway stations for events or other things (like photo shoots). It's rather pricey, but how cool is that?

The ugly Arial-like font on the left that they used for some
stations in place of the classic one on the right.

5. The font used in the TTC stations (or well, most of them) was lost at one point (hence the ugly arial looking ones) and someone was hired to go back and trace old signage to develop the font again. That font is also purchasable.

6. The Redpath sugar plant has a shitload of sugar. Seriously, it's at least a few stories high. Found this out when we got to go inside during Doors Open last year.

7. The Evergreen Brickworks wants your kids to get dirty. They offer programs where kids can go and dig up worms and such, in response to kids staying indoors in this new techno-age. Also - they used to make some of the best bricks in North America.

8. All Toronto streets that aren't posted with signage have an unwritten 3-hour parking limit. It's not unlimited like we (and most of you) thought. See my post about the ticket we got to find this out...

9. The beacon atop the Canada Life building forecasts the weather. The legend is as follows:

• Steady green = clear
• Steady red = cloudy
• Flashing red = rain
• Flashing white = snow

The white lights along the support tower show:^[1]

• Lights running up = warmer
• Lights running down = cooler
• Steady = steady temperature

10. Toronto was once one of the hubs for pork in North America, which dubbed the classic name "Hogtown". On one of the heritage walks we went on, the leader described how the Don River used to be the water source for all of the processing plants, and it was a regular site to see pig carcasses floating in the once dirty-ass river.

...more to come...so long as I keep exploring the city like we have.