Gordie Howe bridge construction crews unearth historic streetcar rails [Video]

Construction crews in Sandwich Town on Windsor’s west side have unearthed rails and ties believed to date back to the turn of the century from the Sandwich, Windsor, and Amherstburg Railway Company (SW&A), the first ever Canadian electric streetcar system.

The Sandwich Town BIA posted a picture online of the artifacts gathered in a pile along Sandwich Street as workers continue to dig up more this week.

“It’s pretty neat to see them pop up,” exclaimed Sandwich Town BIA Director, Stephen Hargreaves. “When we have the construction finished, we’re also integrating some of them into the crosswalks to pay homage to when we had the rails running through Sandwich.”

Construction crews on the site in Sandwich Town on August 8, 2024 (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

Hargreaves explained the earliest ancestor of the SW&A, the Sandwich and Windsor Passenger Railway Company, began in 1872, but that these lines are likely as …