Name of Toronto
John Graves Simcoe identified the area as a strategic location to base a new capital for Upper Canada, believing Newark to be susceptible to American invasion. A garrison was established at Garrison Creek, on the western entrance to the docks of Toronto Harbour, in 1793; this later became Fort York. The settlement it defended was renamed York on August 26, 1793, as Simcoe favoured English names over those of First Nations languages, in honour of Prince Frederick, Duke of York. Residents petitioned to change the name back to Toronto, and in 1834 the city was incorporated with its original name. The name York lived on through the name of York County (which was later split into Metropolitan Toronto and York Region), and continues to live on through the names of several districts within the city, including Yorkville, East York, and North York, the latter two suburbs that were formally amalgamated into the "megacity" of Toronto on January 1, 1998.
North York City Centre
The post-World War II period saw the rapid growth of the suburbs of Toronto. To accommodate the growth, the area was amalgamated into Borough of North York and Metropolitan Toronto in the 1950s. The large expansion of Ontario Highway 401, known as the Toronto Bypass, just to the south connected the district further by highway. The area was filled in by the 1960s with residential single-family subdivisions. By the 1960s, some high rise development was occurring, such as a Canadian Government Building at Yonge and Elmhurst Street and the twin-tower Sheppard Centre commercial and office complex at Yonge and Sheppard. The 1970s saw the extension of the Yonge–University line to Finch, connecting the area to downtown Toronto.