Canada's First Electric Telegraph

Photos by Alan L Brown - September 2006

I came across an Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque attached to the north wall of the south St. Lawrence Market building here on the south-west corner of Front and Jarvis Streets. I happened to be going to the market for some fresh strawberries and blueberries which, I'm happy to report, I found. Hmmm tasty.... Anyway, here's what the plaque says:

19 December 1846 marked the inauguration of the telegraph in Canada. This major development in communications was pioneered by the Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company whose line then being built between Toronto and Queenston carried the first message, from the mayor of Toronto to his Hamilton counterpart. To most Canadians the early telegraph was an expensive novelty but both the press and business soon adapted it to their use. In 1852 the successful but limited Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara enterprise was bought by the larger Montreal Telegraph Company.

Related web page
telegraph

Plaque Location Co-ordinates: 43.649111 -79.371854

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