The City Of Five Towns

I find it interesting how the city of Niagara Falls, Canada relates to the urbanization that is going on across the world. The city of Niagara Falls on the Canadian side is considered as just that, a city. But a close look at it reveals that it can also be looked at as five towns that are close together. The city, like many others, were put together from what had once been separate towns. But in this city, the divisions between the towns are still clearly seen.

Here is a map link: www.maps.google.com

 The one of the five towns that would be most familiar to tourists is the one centered around Clifton Hill. To the west of that is another town, centered around Main Street/Portage Road at the intersection of Lundy's Lane. There is a clear division between these two towns in the field with the electric pylons along Ferry Ave.

The town around Clifton Hill was originally named Clifton. The one around Main Street / Portage Road was Drummondville.

To the north of the Clifton Hill area, there is another town centered around Queen Street. This was once the town of Elgin. The division between this town and Clifton Hill is the highway known as Route 420, including Newman Hill and Roberts Street. In the north end of the city is yet another town in the Stamford area, centered around the intersection of Thorold Stone Road and Drummond/Portage Road. This is divided from the Queen Street area by the hydraulic canal and train tracks around where Stanley Avenue meets Thorold Stone Road.

Finally, there is the area in the north of the city along the river centered around Buttrey and Ferguson Streets. This is separated from Queen Street by the train tracks along Bridge Street. It was originally known as Silvertown because of the silver refining industry there.

This reminds me of the painting of a vase that can be looked at as either the vase or the profile of a person, depending on how you look at it. If a group of travel writers were sent to Niagara Falls, who did not know the language and could not read the signs, some might see it as a city and others might see it as five towns. 

With regard to urbanization this gives us the idea that, while there are many more people living in cities, not all of them actually moved to the city. Rather, those who did move to the city brought about it's expansion so that it incorporated what were once separate towns. In the majority of the area of Niagara Falls, Canada, we can see how the main streets form neat squares or rectangles with each other. This is because they were once farm roads, until the city spread and incorporated the area and the once separate towns came closer together.