What traffic used to look like in Toronto

Almost as long as there have been cars, there have been traffic jams in Toronto. Add road space and, like the ocean into a harbour, cars and vehicles arrive to fill it. It's been called the "fundamental rule" of traffic: greater road capacity leads directly to more cars and longer journeys.

With that thought it mind it should come as no surprise that Toronto's downtown streets have been a congested mess since before the 1930s, when people were driving Buick Series 40s and Plymouth Model 30Us and horse-drawn carts were still a relatively common mode of transportation.

To celebrate tonight's overnight lane closures on the Gardiner and the weekend shutdown of the subway between Eglinton and Bloor, here are some classic photos of Toronto traffic.

Traffic cop at King and Yonge streets, 1912.

Heavy traffic on Queen following a snowstorm on Christmas Eve 1924.

A congested Bay looking north from Adelaide, December 24, 1924.

Yonge near Albert (close to today's Eaton Centre) in December 1924.

Traffic jam, unknown location, circa. 1929.

Pedestrians spilling off the sidewalks at Queen and Yonge, August 31, 1929.

Street parking forces Yonge down to one lane north of Shuter February 17, 1930.

Yonge St. looking south from Albert St., August 31, 1929.

Crowds of people board Peter Witt streetcars at Queen and Yonge, August 31, 1929.

Cars at a standstill on Queens Park Crescent in 1936.

Cars squeeze under the rail underpass near Davenport Rd. in 1936.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic in 1954.

Cars cover the street at Bay and Temperance, 1954.

Construction forces traffic into a single lane in 1954.

Traffic cop looks on as a car fails to clear the intersection, 1954.

Queen and Yonge in 1954.

Rail underpass in 1954.

St. Clair traffic, 1954.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Images: City of Toronto Archives (as labeled.)