By Vivian Song, CNN
Toronto (CNN) — It’s lunch hour on a wintry Wednesday afternoon and the streets of Toronto’s Financial District feel eerily abandoned.
Snow flurries are blowing at an angle, the sky is a leaden grey, and visibility is poor. Only a handful of pedestrians mummified in puffer coats can be seen waddling down the snow and slush-covered sidewalks of Adelaide Street West braving the 7F (-14C) windchill under the shadow of monolithic office towers .
Otherwise, the streets are unsettlingly quiet.
First-time visitors could be forgiven for mistaking Canada’s largest and most populous city (also the fourth largest city in North America) for an abandoned, quasi-dystopian concrete jungle, rather than the humming economic engine that it is.
Until, that is, they venture underground.
Because come winter, many Torontonians who live and work in the heart of Canada’s finance industry move into the sprawling subterranean underworld known as the PATH, a 30-kilometer network of labyrinthine pedestrian walkways that connect shops, restaurants, residences, office towers and subway stations, as well as tourist attractions.
On social media forums, users jokingly refer to the thousands of downtown office workers as gnomes, gophers or “mole people” who live and work underground. Or, that the workers in the maze of passageways are people who entered the PATH, got lost and couldn’t find their way out.
In the city’s Financial District, home to Canada’s major banks, locals are easily distinguishable from tourists and visitors by the conspicuous absence of winter paraphernalia. In place of winter coats, finance bros strut the halls in their puffer and fleece vests. Sartorial sightings among the smartly dressed, badge-wearing women include bare-footed sling backs, sleeveless tops and crisply-pressed, floor-length dress pants, with nary a salt stain to be seen.
“The PATH isn’t just underground shopping. It’s a part of how downtown Toronto works every day,” explains Amy Harrell, executive director of the Toronto Financial District Business Improvement Area. “It’s a weather-protected city within a city that connects people who work, travel, eat and explore downtown Toronto.”
Toronto is one of several Canadian cities with built-in, climate-controlled infrastructure to protect pedestrians from frigid Canadian winters and punishing summer heat waves. Montreal’s underground is the RÉSO. The Edmonton Pedway and Winnipeg Skywalk are made up of tunnels and skywalks, while Calgary’s Plus 15 network is made up of elevated bridges and walkways.
In the cult Canadian indie 2000 film “Waydowntown,” a group of young office workers bet a month’s salary on who can last the longest living in Calgary’s Plus 15 without going outside. Needless to say, cabin fever brings on their demise .
The buzzing underground networks are an important part of the modern, urban lifestyle in Canada’s coldest metropolises, and can be fascinating — and disorienting — for visitors.
‘It’s just hard to navigate’
For locals, these sheltered passages can also make surfacing almost unnecessary.
When Jadiel Teófilo moved from Brazil to Toronto three years ago, it was his first time experiencing snow, sub-zero temperatures and polar vortexes. But strangely, the 28-year-old confesses the transition was relatively smooth.
“Since I have the PATH, I didn’t really spend that much time in the cold,” the software engineer tells CNN Travel.
Teófilo lives near the Scotiabank Arena and works in the Scotia Plaza. Apart from a short hop across the street from his apartment, he spends his entire day indoors as his 15-minute walk to work connects