The Promontory Mountains just an hour north of Salt Lake City are scarred by the remnants of old railroad infrastructure. Cuts, fills, and culverts were used to bring trains up and down steep grades. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads were racing to connect the country from coast to Read more…
The late Queen Elizabeth II had reigned for so long that people have lived and died in 70 years. Although there was a quick succession of death, ascension, abdication, and coronation in the first third of the 20th century, there hasn’t been a change of guard in recent memory. Canadians Read more…
Louisbourg is a fishing village surrounded by the fortress’ National Historic Park on both sides of the bay. On one side is a lighthouse built near the site of the country’s first lighthouse in 1730. On the other side is the mighty fortress and its partially rebuilt village. I visited Read more…
Forts Gaspereaux, Lawrence, and Beauséjour are all part of a defensive system on the border of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. But in the eighteenth century, it was the British against the French and the French had no desire of sharing this New World with the Brits. Beaubassin wasn’t just Read more…
I actually got the name of it wrong the first five times I was in Munich, I missed out the umlaut whenever I said it, don’t make the same mistake I did! With a history stretching back to the 16th century, it was founded by a duke in Bavaria. HB Read more…
Generally, the fortifications of Quebec include multiple elements of the city’s defences. The Citadelle of Quebec, Saint-Louis Fort, Royal Battery, and artillery pieces placed strategically on the city’s walls are all part of its fortifications. The fortifications are now a designated National Historic Site with an interpretive centre at Artillery Read more…
The Toronto Archives started in 1960 in the attic of the old city hall when various city department heads were convinced that important records should be kept in special conditions for future generations. It was later moved to the basement where there was more space for everything since 1792. About Read more…
The same day that Queen Elizabeth II’s body was carried through the streets of London to her final resting place in Westminster Abbey, Ottawa had its own commemoration activities mirroring those in the old country. A 96-gun salute for every year of her life, an invitation-only remembrance service at Christ Read more…
The history of Chatham is tightly linked to the legacy of the Underground Railroad that helped up to 100,000 black slaves escape to free states and to Canada. In nearby Dresden, Reverend Josiah Henson bought 100 acres of land to establish the Dawn Settlement in the 1830s to provide escaped Read more…
The U-boot Museum in Hamburg has some tourists confused. First of all, the pennant number U-434 was not the vessel’s number – it was B-515. Furthermore, it is not an infamous German U-boat from WWII, it was a Soviet submarine that was decommissioned only in 2001 and converted into a Read more…