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

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

By
When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba
Post a Comment
Read more

Interstate 210 the Foothill Freeway

By
The combined Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor of the Foothill Freeway is approximately 85.31-miles.  The Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor begins at Interstate 5 at the northern outskirts of Los Angeles and travels east to Interstate 10 in Redlands of San Bernardino County.  Interstate 210 is presently signed on the 44.9-mile segment of the Foothill Freeway between Interstate 5 and California State Route 57.  California State Route 210 makes up the remaining 40.41 miles of the Foothill Freeway east to Interstate 10.  Interstate 210 is still classified by the Federal Highway Administration as existing on what is now signed as California State Route 57 from San Dimas south to Interstate 10.  The focus of this blog will mostly be on the history of Interstate 210 segment of the Foothill Freeway.   Part 1; the history of Interstate 210 and California State Route 210 Interstate 210 (I-210) was approved as a chargeable Interstate during September of
Post a Comment
Read more