I know Iâve talked about it before but it never ceases to amaze me that the city of Toronto created this labyrinthine series of underground walkways that stretch for kilometres under the heart of downtown and they called it the fucking PATH. like how much more ominous could that even be. It doesnât even stand for anything itâs just the PATH, all caps. What fucking fae named this artisanal bakery maze.
@asimovsideburnsâ #it doesnât even stand for anything?????Â
It doesnât!!! even stand!! for anything!!!
âPATH is downtown Torontoâs enclosed pedestrian walkway linking 29 kilometres of shopping, services and entertainment connecting Toronto Coach Terminal to Maple Leaf Square/Air Canada Centre. The Acronym (PATH) does not stand for anything - just signals that there is a pathway.â
Like I always lose my mind at this. If it doesnât stand for anything itâs not an acronym Toronto!! Toronto!!!!!!!!!
Copying my tags:
Iâm not exaggerating about the part without a ceiling:
This is, by the way, right under Bay & Bloor, dead centre of the city and some of the most expensive real estate in Canada. It radiates an incredible aura of menace.
Okay far more poeple have reblogged this than I thought and I just wanted to clarify- the horror of the PATH is not that it all looks like a spooky basement where youâre about to get murdered. There ARE spots like that, but to understand the ~vibe~ of the PATH, you have to understand that it is essentially one very large mall co-designed by like, 70+ different corperations who all have different aesthetics. SO, the PATH looks like that, but it also looks like this
and like this
and like this
and like this
Hereâs an entrance to the PATH at Union
And hereâs another- also at Union
And hereâs another a few blocks away, though tbh I have never been able to enter here because it always seems to be locked, no matter how much I want Wendyâs that day.Â
And youâd think these mixed aesthetics would make it easier to navigate, or at least figure out where you are, but again, there are over 70 different entities designing this shit and not one original thought between them. So while you may well know when you step from one property to the next, whatever the look of your current section itâs more than likely theyâre a nigh identical section somewhere further just to confound your mortal sense.Â
Basically, everyone tagging this with the Magnus Archives is very correct- If any place on earth could be the true domain of the Spiral itâs the PATH, and itâs just a shame Jonny didnât know about it before the show wrapped up.Â
Oh my God
Itâs actually a great illustration of the failures of capitalism. The PATH isnât something designed by the city, instead each building has their own section. And because of that, the signage isnât just inconsistent, itâs actively hostile to you leaving that section. Every incentive points towards keeping you in that one area and not making it easy to find another building.
Also one time I tried to leave the PATH at night through a small set of double doors and while the doors leading to a small atrium opened, the doors leading to the outside were locked, and had I not caught the first doors before they closed I wouldâve been trapped in an unheated 2m square between-space, neither in the PATH nor out of it, overnight
























