Join us for “A Tale of Two Tunnels Beneath the St. Clair River”, an online lecture on June 15!
Join Christina Sydorko, Educational Programs Coordinator at the Oil Museum of Canada, on a journey to discover the engineering marvel that is the St. Clair tunnel.
Picture this: Rail traffic is backed up and at a stand still on a frozen stormy night in the middle of winter. It is too dangerous for the Grand Trunk Railway ferries to make the river crossing in the storm and tomorrow will be lost due to ice jams. The St. Clair River crossing has become a bottleneck and delays are costing money. How can this problem be solved? The solution is digging a tunnel in the soft clay beneath one of the fastest rivers to join Canada and the United States by a ribbon of steel!
Construction of the St. Clair tunnel was an engineering marvel of its time, only to be repeated again 100 years later! The second version saw crews employing the latest laser-guided technologically-advanced tunneling machine dubbed “Excalibore” built in Toronto, Ontario.
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ABOUT CHRISTINA SYDORKO
Christina is a dedicated educator who strives to create exciting and informative educational experiences. She has an Honour’s Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Education from Windsor University with subject specialization in History and Geography. Christina spent 15 years teaching in the Lambton Kent District School Board before moving to be the full time Educational Programs Coordinator at the Oil Museum of Canada, National Historic Site in 2017. She has spearheaded the creation of the Travelling Trunks educational kits and virtual education programs at the museum with a focus on fact based education. Christina is also the recipient of the 2021 Award of Excellence in Programming from the Ontario Museum Association for virtual programs and the Lambton County Innovation Award for 2021. Christina hopes to encourage a new generation of young people to find the wonder and exciting opportunities in the physical world around them.
ABOUT THE TORONTO RAILWAY MUSEUM (TRM)
The Toronto Railway Museum (TRM) brings people together by telling stories of Toronto’s railway heritage. The Museum is located in the heart of downtown Toronto and is typically open year-round. TRM presents exhibits, tours, educational programs and publications that broaden the understanding and appreciation of Toronto’s rich railway history. TRM is committed to telling the stories of the railways, and welcoming conversations of its varied experiences through its lecture series, exhibits and integrated programming with a mission to learn from the past to make the future better.