Skip to main content

Mile Zero Monument of the Trans-Canada Highway - Victoria, British Columbia

Image
By

 


I recently had the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Victoria, British Columbia. While being the location of provincial capital, Victoria has a number of gems waiting to be discovered. Whether it is the totem poles of the First Nations past in Vancouver Island, a well-preserved Chinatown, stunning gardens, a picturesque harbor and one of Canada's grandest hotels, Victoria has a lot going for it. But during my research of things to see and do within the few hours I had to devote to this charming city, I found that there is a Mile Zero monument for the Trans-Canada Highway.

The mainline of the Trans-Canada Highway stretches 4,860 miles (7,821 kilometers) from Victoria, British Columbia to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, and is one of the longest continuous roads in the world. As for the Mile Zero monument, it can be found at Victoria's Beacon Hill Park, at the corner of Douglas Street and Dallas Road. From here, the Trans-Canada Highway goes north on Douglas Street towards downtown Victoria and ultimately across Canada. While it is not known when the monument was put up, my guess is that the monument was put when the Trans-Canada Highway was opened in 1962. This would have been before the time when Canada went to the metric system. It is a relatively simple monument, but it tells you simply what it is, the beginning of the Trans-Canada Highway. There is another Mile Zero monument at the highway's eastern end in St. John's.

You can find other monuments nearby as well. There is a Terry Fox statue right behind the Mile Zero monument. Terry Fox was a young man stricken with bone cancer and as a result of the cancer, his right leg was amputated above the knee. In 1980, Fox began the Marathon of Hope, where he would run the length of the Trans-Canada Highway from St. John's to Victoria to raise money for cancer research. Unfortunately, he never achieved his goal of running all the way to the Mile Zero monument in Victoria, having to stop near Thunder Bay, Ontario after 143 days on the road because cancer had spread to his lungs. If he had made it to Victoria, he would've been greeted by views of the scenic Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is across the street from the Mile Zero Monument.


The Mile Zero Monument is simple, yet beautiful. In the summertime, there's plenty of flowers surrounding the monument.

Only 4,860 miles to St. John's, Newfoundland.

Fundraising for causes have been noteworthy events along the Trans-Canada Highway and they all have a grand finale in Victoria.

Terry Fox statue.

The Mile Zero monument can be found at the southwest corner of Beacon Hill Park, where Douglas Street and Dallas Road intersect.

The Trans-Canada Highway ends or begins across the street from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There was an anchor honoring Victoria's maritime heritage that was installed across the street from the Mile Zero Monument.


How to Get There:



Sources and Links:
Tourism Victoria - Mile 0
Atlas Obscura - Mile 0
Roadside America - Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway
Labels:
Location: 18 Douglas St, Victoria, BC V8V 2N6, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

By
  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...
Post a Comment
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

2018 Mojave Road Trip Part 2; The deadly desert highway (California State Route 127 and Nevada State Route 373)

By
After leaving Barstow via Old Highway 58 my next destination was in Death Valley.  To access Death Valley from rural San Bernardino County required a trek on north on Interstate 15 to California State Route 127 which becomes Nevada State Route 373 at the state line. Along I-15 I encountered the road sign oddity that is Zzyzx Road about eight miles south of Baker.   Zzyzx Road is a four mile road that used to go to the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa.   The spa was founded in the 1940s and the owner made up the name "Zzyzx" to claim it was the last word in the English Language.  The spa has been shut down since the 1970s and is now part of a Desert Studies Center for California State University. The southern terminus of CA 127 in Baker is located at I-15 exit 246.  CA 127 is a 91 mile north/south highway which runs to the Nevada State Line in Inyo County.  CA 127 is called Death Valley Road from I-15 northward.  South of CA 127 ...
4 comments
Read more