Rail Lands: CN Express Building

In 1929, Canadian National Railway (CN) built the Express Building as a freight depot for businesses to ship products along its railway networks to consumers. Workers would pick up the products and transport them to the station by wagons. Another freight building built by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) on Bay Street also serviced Union Station. 

Although the façade of the building remains, workers demolished the top floors of the building to create the Skywalk, an enclosed pedestrian walkway linking the CN Tower to the then-SkyDome (today’s Roger Centre), in 1989. The building now also acts as part of the PATH system and allows pedestrians to walk under the downtown railway viaduct. Although no longer operating out of the building, the Canadian National Express service still exists and has allowed Canadian National to continue to serve communities and businesses that are located further away from their railway lines.

The Express Building is located near the site of Toronto’s first two Union Stations. The current Union Station is actually the third iteration of the station. The Grand Trunk Railway built the first Union Station in 1858 approximately where track 3 is in today’s Union Station. Unlike the current station, the original Union Station faced Lake Ontario.

Composed of three separate buildings, the original station contained a telegraph office, freight depot, men and women’s waiting rooms, ticket office, and a barber shop. By the late 1860s, it was clear that the building could not keep up with the rapid increase in the city’s rail traffic. A new, much larger station replaced it on the same site in 1873.

When the second Union Station opened, it was the largest in Canada. Thomas Scott designed the building in an Italianate/ Second Empire style with a large clock tower in the centre. The station, though beautiful, was not without its problems.  Like its predecessor, the building had several separate sections and passengers needed to travel through rather long tunnels to access their train. In addition, prior to the construction of the train shed, passengers had to wait on the open-air platform in all weather conditions.

One of the easiest exits out of Toronto’s second Union Station was via an iron pedestrian bridge. The bridge passed over the rail tracks and ended near the corner of Front and Simcoe Streets. It was common to see new arrivals standing on the bridge before heading to their new homes. The bridge, nicknamed the Bridge of Sighs after the famous bridge in Venice, provided new arrivals with their first real look at Toronto.

Due to the confusing nature of the station, and the ever-increasing railway traffic, the Grand Trunk Railway, along with the city, searched for a new site to build an even bigger station to keep up with demand. The Great Toronto Fire in 1904 ultimately allowed them to purchase prime property between York and Bay Streets to build a third Union Station, which continues to serve Toronto today. The majority of the second Union Station was dismantled following the new station’s opening in 1927; the only notable piece to survive its demolition was its clock, which now serves as the clock for the Huntsville Town Hall, located in Muskoka.

Workers also tore down the old Bridge of Sighs in the 1920s. The new Union Station offered a more streamlined design that removed the need for a pedestrian bridge. New arrivals now walked through a series of tunnels leading to the Arrivals Concourse. From there, they could exit to Front Street or into the Great Hall.