This map of Winnipeg illustrates the natural barriers to communication in the city, the Red, Assiniboine and Seine Rivers. Overlaying these natural divisions was a network of railway lines and maintenance shops which further isolated segments of the city. Note, for example, the few streets which connect the North End, beyond the CPR tracks, yards and shops, with the rest of Winnipeg. Public transit was only available to residents of the North End on Main Street and even then, until 1908, they had to change and walk across the CPR tracks. In 1908 the subway on Main Street was completed. Thus, the sense of both social and physical isolation was very real in the working.class North End.
Other parts of the city took on their own distinctive characters. The main business district developed around the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street while the middle and upper classes lived in the southern section of town.
