Transportation has been vital to the growth and development of Sidney and the Saanich Peninsula. Shipping and ferries would call at Sidney as early as the 1880s, and the first railway started in 1894. With the steady expansion of Sidney and the peninsula, dirt roads eventually became highways, and with the advent of a bus service to the area, the railways eventually closed. The Victoria International Airport has also played a key role in the development of the area since it's beginnings as an airfield and seaplane base in the 1930s. The picture above shows the S. S. Strathcona tied up to the jetty at the foot of Beacon Avenue, with the 'Cordwood Express' (V. & S. Railway) waiting along side.