This post has the answers for last week’s trivia questions on Transportation. The next set of questions on Buildings in Edmonton are now available!
Transportation
Innovations in transportation have been very important in Edmonton’s growth and economic prosperity. Canoe brigades of the fur trade gave way to the York boat which could carry more freight, and then to the Steamboat which could carry even more freight and many passengers at ease. Trails across the prairies were traversed first by horse, then oxen and carts and stagecoaches, which then gave way to coal fired locomotives on steel rails. Ferries across rivers were replaced by bridges that allowed passage in any season and without waits on the riverbank. Streetcars allowed workers to travel longer distances in shorter times than walking and eventually trolleys and then buses replaced them with the ease of going without tracks or cables. Mail and passengers requiring days of travel by horse-drawn and even mechanized vehicles were whisked skyward to be delivered by airplanes in less than half the time. With each innovation isolation, cost and time spent were all reduced, making living in Edmonton so much easier.
Each of the transportation milestones identified in last weeks questions moved Edmonton further ahead economically and socially. With each improvement in the transportation sector it became easier to get to Edmonton (or away from it), to move around the City, to move goods into and out of the markets and to encourage people to settle here for business or personal reasons.
1. Built in 1900, what is Edmonton’s earliest bridge across the North Saskatchewan River?
A: 105 Street Bridge
B: High Level Bridge
C: Low Level Bridge
D: Groat Bridge
The Edmonton Bridge was converted in 1902 to allow the first train to cross into the City from the South side. It was renamed the Low Level after the construction of the High Level Bridge in 1913. It was twinned in 1948 when the west side was added for south-bound traffic.
2. When did the first train arrive in Edmonton (not Strathcona)?
A: 1902
B: 1892
C: 1912
D: 1922
3. When did Edmonton’s streetcar service begin?
A: 1900
B: 1905
C: 1908
D: 1910
4. Which well known southside area resident operated a ferry across the North Saskatchewan River until 1913?
A: John Walter
B: Richard Secord
C: John McDougall
D: Alexander Rutherford
5. Edmonton saw its first airplane flight on September 5, 1909. Who was the pilot and builder of this small plane?
A. Roy Brown
B. Wop May
C. Rosella Bjornson
D. Reginald Hunt
Reginald Hunt was not as well known as Wop May – in fact he had
moved away by 1921. May had more flair.
Most people don’t know that an Edmontonian was one of the first Canadians to fly – but Reg Hunt also built the one winged airplane himself – because he was a carpenter. He flew the plane for about a year before he crashed while preparing for the Edmonton Exhibition. He was fine but the plane was destroyed. Hunt then built boats for the Hudson Bay Company.
6. When did the first train pass over the High Level Bridge?
A: 1912
B: 1913
C: 1914
D: 1915
7. What Iroquois trapper and guide, also known as Tete Jaune, were the Yellowhead Pass and Highway named after?
A. Pierre Hatsinaton
B. Laurent Garneau
C. Louis Riel
D. Audrey Poitras
Indigenous and Metis people often served as guides to fur trade era explorers because they knew the land so well. It is possible Hatsinaton was Metis because he had blond hair. Laurent Garneau was a Metis who lived in Strathcona on the land which eventually became the neighbourhood which bears his name and the University of Alberta. Louis Riel was a leader in the Metis community at Red River who challenged the Dominion Government when they annexed the settlement without consultation or representation of the majority of the people in the area. Audrey Poitras was the first female and current President of the Metis Nation elected in 1996.
8. The Rat Hole opened October 19, 1928. What was the “Rat Hole”?
A. a hole in Mayfair Park
B. an overpass for trains over Jasper Avenue
C. a bar on Jasper Ave
D. an underpass for vehicles under the CNR tracks at 97 Street
9. What major transit network officially opened on April 22, 1978?
A: The LRT
B: The Anthony Henday
C: The High Level Bridge
D: The Yellowhead Highway
10. The Disabled Adult Transportation System (DATS) was created to provide affordable transportation within Edmonton to people with physical disabilities. In what year did the initial two year pilot project begin?
A: 1965
B: 1975
C: 1985
D: 1995
Good luck with the next batch of questions about Buildings in Edmonton, you have until Thursday, April 20 at midnight to answer them and be entered in the contest!