Although the decade does pre-date the rise of Toronto's first modern skyscrapers (the TD Centre wasn't built until the late 1960s) and the building and population booms of the 1970s, the 50s will be forever remembered in Toronto as the decade when we finally got the subway.

As a result of this massive construction project, there's actually a wealth of photographs from the period available via the Toronto Archives.

While many of these feature subway building as their main subject matter, there's plenty else going on in the photos. One thing of note, everything looks so clean!

Here's how Toronto looked in the 1950s.

1950

Construction on King Street.

Building the subway.

1952

The Davisville Yards. 

1953

Subway cars being offloaded from a shipment.

A subway car with an engineer. 

The Flame restaurant and old car.

1954

A collection booth at Dundas Station.

The interior of an old subway car.

A crowd attending the official opening of the subway line.

1955

The Letros Tavern.

1956

A police car. Photo by pjs_deceased.

1957

A boat with a very different-looking skyline. Photo by pjs_deceased.

Cars lining the streets in the Annex.

1958

Red Path Sugar factory being built. Photo from the Red Path archives. 

Davenport Road, looking west. 

The Maple Leafs versus the Blackhawks. Photo by Nate and Lou Turofsky.

1959

Another very different-looking skyline.

Lake Shore Boulevard streaking across the city.

An old postcard of the Beaches.