Ottawa Daily Foto

Times Have Changed

This mural found on the façade of Il Vagabondo Ristorante in Vanier depicts a much simpler time, a time when the Ottawa Electric Railway was in existence taking people to work, families to the beach, and relatives to visit their kin. Back in 1891, the Railway was the brainwork of inventor and businessman Thomas Ahearn, who worked to bring Canada's transportation system to the electric age. (He was also the fellow who invented the electric stove in 1892, by the way.) These electric streetcars transported Ottawa's rapidly growing population from one end of the city to the other however, in 1948 the line was transferred to the City and sadly, the electric trolley car had its last run on May 1, 1959.