Winnipeg's Portage and Main reopens to pedestrians after 46 years of barricades: How did we get here?
CBC
Winnipeg's Portage and Main intersection is embedded in the story of Canada — the crossroads of the country and one of its windiest corners — and it's held that lore despite being inaccessible to pedestrians for 46 years.
But all that changes today.
The barricades that forced pedestrians below ground and into a labyrinth of tunnels to get to the other side of the street have been torn down.
The shrouds over the walk signals are set to be removed after morning rush hour with the first "official" crossing at 10:30 a.m., said a city spokesperson. People have unofficially used it since crossing lines were painted last weekend.
So how did we finally get to this point, after years of public opposition to reopening?
Well, kind of like how the intersection started in the first place — against the odds.
For decades, everything in the area that's now central Winnipeg was focused around Hudson's Bay Company's Upper Fort Garry near the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.
"That was the centre of government. It was the centre of commerce. It was the centre of the centre of settlement," said Gordon Goldsborough, head researcher of the Manitoba Historical Society.
Travellers from the west carved deep ruts into the prairie as they followed the Assiniboine to the fort. Near there, the trail crossed the main north-south Main Road that ran between the fort and the HBC's Lower Fort Garry 30 kilometres north on the Red.
That was the main intersection closest to the fort, considered the birthplace of Winnipeg.
But a decision by Henry McKenney changed everything.
McKenney opened the city's first hotel in an old building between Upper Fort Garry and Fort Douglas, which was in present-day Point Douglas. The Royal Hotel was between today's McDermot and Bannatyne avenues.
It was so popular, a new branch of the east-west Portage trail emerged, heading to the Royal Hotel, crossing Main about a kilometre north of Upper Fort Garry.
Recognizing the growing importance of that junction, McKenney sold the hotel and bought land at the northwest corner of the Main and Portage trails, where he opened a general store in 1862.
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