Toronto waterfront

The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River in the east.

History

Lake Ontario is a recent lake. As the last glaciation, the Laurentian glaciation receded, a number of proglacial lakes filled in basins adjacent to the glacier. One of those proglacial lakes was Lake Iroquois. Lake Iroquois was considerably deeper than Lake Ontario, as a lobe of the Laurentian glacier still filled the valley of what is now the St. Lawrence River. The southern boundary of Lake Iroquois was the Niagara escarpment. The lake flowed over the Niagara Escarpment east of Rochester, and flowed to the Atlantic Ocean down what is now the Mohawk River, to the Hudson River. The shoreline of Lake Iroquois can be observed in steep hills, such as that on the north side of Davenport Road. Casa Loma has a view of the harbour, four kilometres away, as it is on the height of the old shoreline.

When the glacier retreated from the St. Lawrence Valley, the shoreline receded to a much shallower level than today's lake, as it takes time for land that had been under a heavy glacier to rebound. This lake was called Admiralty Lake.
Some sources suggest the drainage of the lake triggered the Upper Dryas climatic change. Some sources suggest the lake drained all the way to sea level and the lake became brackish.

Since the last ice age, silt deposits, borne mostly from the erosion of the Scarborough Bluffs and the eluvial rivers to the east were swept by strong, natural Lake Ontario currents creating prominent fingers of land away from the lakeshore in the current central waterfront area, including the Toronto Islands.
The shore of Lake Ontario (at least within present-day Toronto Harbour) is mostly landfill, extending a kilometre or more from the natural shoreline.

Adding to the existing silt deposits, Ashbridges Bay was filled in and the Port Lands area (Cherry Street to Leslie Street) was created in the early 1900s. The bay was filled in partly due to concerns about public health – locals had disposed of sewage, farm animal carcasses and household waste in the bay for years. During this period, the Don River, which used to flow into the bay to the south-west, was diverted (straightened) toward the harbour, first directly southward and later westward through the current configuration of the Keating Channel. Currently, there are proposals to restore the original natural watercourse of the Don, which would bring it closer to the downtown core. The modern harbour area was mostly formed through landfill in the years around the First World War, to allow for deeper container vessel wharf access. The central waterfront functioned as an important industrial area for many years, providing shipping access to communities from Port Union in the east to Mimico in the west.

Toronto expanded along the waterfront with new residential suburbs. West of the Humber River, outside the city limits, the waterfront has been mainly private lands fronting on the lake. East of the Humber River, within the city limits, the waterfront is under the control of the government. The Sunnyside lakefront from the Humber east to Jameson was filled in, creating new lands for recreational and park land uses. To the east of Sunnyside, the lands were originally military grounds, centred on Fort York. The Garrison lands became the Exhibition grounds and have been public ever since. To the east of the harbour area, parklands were built along the waterfront from Ashbridges Bay east to the eastern city border at Victoria Park. Further east, the Scarborough lands have been dominated by the Scarborough Bluffs and development could not proceed to the waterfront.

In the 1950s, the Gardiner Expressway project, connecting suburbs to the west, substantially changed the western waterfront. As the Toronto area prospered and the downtown lands became more developed, industry began to move out of the central area seeking cheaper land in the suburbs. This left behind many heavily polluted sites (some of the main uses of the waterfront were oil and coal storage, waste disposal and incineration, and heavy manufacturing especially in Toronto harbour). The railway lands just to the north of the waterfront now became too valuable to keep industrial and have been converted to other uses, starting with the CN Tower in the 1970s. The railway lands became the site of the SkyDome (now Rogers Centre), the Toronto Convention Centre, office buildings and numerous condominium residential buildings.

Tonnage to the Toronto Port has declined over the past 50 years, replaced by increases in other modes of transportation. The Toronto Harbour Commission was eventually dissolved, its lands transferred to the City except for those specifically to be controlled by the successor Toronto Port Authority, which retained authority over transportation uses in the Port, including the Island Airport. The federal government created the authority along with others around Canada to manage ports in a more business-like fashion. Following its mandate, the Port Authority has made attempts to increase usage of the Port, initiating a Ship Terminal and Ferry Service to Rochester, a container facility in the Port lands and plans to expand the usage of the Island Airport, although expanded use of the Island Airport is opposed by local residents and organizations, and puts it at odds with the current City of Toronto council.

The 1972 Canadian election saw a further step in the conversion of the central waterfront away from industrial uses. The Federal Liberals promised to improve Toronto's waterfront, expropriating the area from Bathurst Street to York Street along the waterfront for the "Harbourfront" project. Some buildings, such as Queen's Quay Terminal and Harbourfront Centre were remodeled, and others such as Maple Leaf Mills Silos demolished and replaced by new structures. The areas south of Queens Quay have been changed mainly to cultural and recreational uses and the area north of Queens Quay has been redeveloped into condominium residential towers. West of Bathurst Street, the lands have been converted into a new residential area.

The area between York Street and Jarvis Street along the water has remained in private ownership except for the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. Residential condominiums and the large Harbour Castle hotel were built along the water and the Toronto Star built a new headquarters office building at Yonge Street.

The Redpath Sugar Factory remains, and several industrial buildings have been converted into other uses. The area along the water has been primarily owned by the Toronto Harbour Commission, and eventually transferred to the City's Economic Commission.

In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called another Royal Commission into the waterfront that was headed by former mayor David Crombie. It was reported in 1992 with a detailed, but expensive plan of environmentally sound development following on the heels of his 1982–86 Toronto Waterfront Regeneration Trust Commission report. Few, if any of the recommendations were carried out, as had been the case during the previous 60 years.

Toronto's bids for the 1996 and 2008 Summer Olympics saw plans for much of the new facilities to be located along the waterfront, with all three levels of government committed to spending a great deal of money if the games were won, but on both attempts Toronto lost its bid due to the lack of diversity in facilities either planned or in situ and, except for further commercial condominium development at Harbourfront offering grandiose views of the water, the waterfront was unchanged.
Th
recent bid
by Toronto for the World's Fair 2015 also planned to use waterfront sites to accommodate the fair, but this bid also failed.

As of 2008, most of the lands to the east of Yonge Street, around and east of the Don River are slated for redevelopment directed by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation. Plans are to build predominantly low-rise developments, with a waterfront opened up to public uses, including recreation. The Don River, diverted into a channel is slated to become 'naturalized' with more natural river banks and a more natural appearance.

Timeline

* 1750 – Fort Rouillé trading post is built on waterfront by French military
* 1759 – Fort Rouillé abandoned by French during war with Great Britain
* 1793 – John Graves Simcoe orders the building of Toronto Garrison to guard the western entrance (then, the only entrance) to the harbour.
* 1808 – Gibraltar Point Lighthouse is built on Toronto Bay peninsula

* 1813 – American forces capture the Toronto Garrison at the Battle of York, along with ransacking York, and burning down the Parliament buildings.
* 1814 – Garrison is rebuilt as Fort York
* 1832 – Construction of the Gooderham & Worts distillery to the west of the Don River mouth which grew to become the world's largest distillery.
* 1858 – a violent storm rips a gap at the eastern end of the Toronto Bay peninsula now known as Toronto Island — the gap later becomes the eastern channel.
* 1890s – First undertaken as a sanitary works project, channelization of the lower Don begins, first the mouth is straightened directly southward (Ainsworth Cut).
* 1911 – Toronto Harbour Commission created to manage port infrastructure and work on resolve the Don River mouth alignments.
* 1922 – Construction of the Keating Channel is completed in order to allow large container vessels deeper water access closer to the Don mouth and nearby industry.

* 1920s – THC fills in of harbour shoreline in area south of Harbour Street from Bathurst Street to Don River. THC also fills in marshlands south of Don River for industrial and port development. These are known today as the Portlands. THC also extends shoreline in Sunnyside district and opens Sunnyside Amusement Park
* 1926 – The City of Toronto takes over the Toronto Island ferries.
* 1935 – Construction begins on a tunnel from the end of Stadium Road to the western sandbar (a future airport site) as a depression relief project. Opposed by Toronto Mayor Samuel McBride, it is abandoned several weeks later after a change of federal government.
* 1939 – After 11 years of planning and two years of construction, the ''Port George VI Island Airport'' opens on the western sandbar, near the foot of Bathurst Street.
* 1940–43 – The Royal Norwegian Air Force trains at the island airport during the Nazi occupation of Norway. Moves to Northern Ontario base after several crashes and noise from operations.
* 1949 – While docked at Pier 9, the luxury cruise ship SS Noronic catches fire and burns, killing over 118 people
* 1954 – Hurricane Hazel changes the topography of the harbour, splintering the main island into several smaller islands.
* 1970 – Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant, a restaurant on board the MS Normac in Toronto harbour opens
* 1971 – Ontario Place opens, on man-made islands to the west of the Toronto Islands
* 1972 – Harbourfront Centre is established by the Federal Government
* 1988 – Royal Commission set-up to formulate a plan for Toronto's harbour
* 1991–94 – Transfer of of port lands to City of Toronto' Toronto Economic Development Commission (TEDCO) in return for permanent subsidy of THC.
* 1994 – Toronto Island Airport renamed Toronto City Centre Airport.
* 1999 – Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Premier Mike Harris and Mayor Mel Lastman announced at a press conference the formation of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Task Force

*1999 – Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation is established; Toronto Port Authority (TPA) created to replace the Toronto Harbour Commission
*2000 – The (Robert Fung) Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Task Force Report was released to the public.
*2001–2002 – The TPA sues the City for $1 billion over lands transferred in 1990s; settles for $55 million settlement and agreement to permit building of bridge to Island; end of permanent subsidy for lands.
*2003 – After election of Mayor David Miller; bridge to island airport is canceled.
*2004 – The Rochester/Toronto Ferry starts service in May and ends in November
*2006 – The Rochester/Toronto Ferry announces that it will no longer be in business
*2006 – TEDCO and its partners Rose Corp and Toronto Film Studios begin construction of a new Film Studio (" Filmport") in the Portlands set to open in Spring 2008
*2006 – The Ontario Government proposes a new electrical generation plant in the port lands ( Portlands Energy Centre)
*2006 – REGCO Holdings signs a 25-year deal with the Toronto Port Authority to run an airline service out of the island airport (Porter Airlines)
*2007 – TEDCO begins construction of Corus Quay office building for media company Corus Entertainment at the foot of Jarvis Street
*2009 – Waterfront Toronto breaks ground on the new Sherbourne Park.Sherbourne Park
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* 2009 – Toronto City Centre Airport renamed Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

* 2010 – Corus Quay opens
* 2010 – Sugar Beach opens at foot of Jarvis Street
* 2011 – Final season of Ontario Place theme park; park to be redeveloped; some facilities remain open
* 2012 – Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant closes in default
* 2013 – Porter Airlines proposes jets at island airport
* 2015 – Toronto Port Authority renamed to PortsToronto
* 2015 – Pedestrian tunnel opens to island airport
* 2015 – Pan-Am Games use revitalized water channel along Ontario Place for competitions
* 2015 – Jets proposal for island airport is cancelled after Canadian federal election
* 2017 – Google's Sidewalk Labs announces multi-level government partnership, through Waterfront Toronto, to develop Quayside; plans were later abandoned by Google in 2020.

Areas

Western waterfront

Etobicoke Creek forms the western border of the city of Toronto dividing it with neighbouring Mississauga, and its portion of the Lake Ontario waterfront. The Etobicoke section of the lakeshore is mainly privately owned with parklands and public lands. The neighbourhoods north of the lake are the former villages of Mimico, New Toronto and Long Branch, developed as suburbs of the original city. While in close proximity to the lake, these areas are also just to the south of the industrial belt surrounding the CNR rail line. Notable sights on this part of the waterfront include the lakeshore campus of Humber College, housed in a historic former asylum, and Humber Bay Park, and large park at the outlet of Mimico Creek. Both these sites have marinas. More parkland along the lakeshore is being built with the goal to extend the waterfront route of Martin Goodman Trail

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