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83-645: Waterfront Toronto (incorporated as the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation ) is an organization that oversees revitalization projects along the Toronto waterfront . Established in 2001 as a public–public partnership between the City of Toronto , Province of Ontario and Government of Canada , the organization is administering several blocks of land redevelopment projects surrounding Toronto Harbour and various other initiatives to promote

166-572: A task force of the municipal, provincial and federal governments, was established in November 1999 to study the future of the Toronto waterfront. The task force, headed by financier Robert Fung, reported in March 2000. It estimated the total cost of revitalization at CA$ 5 billion in public investment and a further CA$ 7 billion in private-sector investment. It proposed the following general recommendations for

249-599: A bridge, due to concerns about increased vehicle and air traffic along the waterfront. Mayor David Miller canceled the plans for the bridge soon after winning office. However, in 2009, a revised plan to connect the Island to the mainland emerged when the Toronto Port Authority began preliminary work on a $ 38 million pedestrian tunnel under the Western Gap , which was completed and opened to pedestrian traffic in 2015. To

332-457: A chain of small natural islands, form the southern border of the Inner Harbour. Most of the islands are today parkland, with a handful of permanent inhabitants. The westernmost portion of the islands are dominated by the island airport . The island airport is linked to the mainland by a ferry at Bathurst Street . Controversy arose in 2003 when the port authority proposed replacing the ferry with

415-461: A five-minute walk of all residences, schools, childcare and recreation facilities. Site preparation activities and phase one infrastructure are currently underway in East Bayfront and West Don Lands. Waterfront Toronto launched the developer selection process for the East Bayfront in March 2008 and announced Urban Capital Property Group/Redquartz Developments as the first phase developer partner for

498-455: A massive five-storey green living wall, 100 bicycle parking spaces, and public art installations created by award-winning U.K. artists, Troika. Future projects include: Toronto waterfront 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

581-518: A new Film Studio sponsored by TEDCO. The southern portion of the Portlands was intended to be an outer harbour, but the demand for such a harbour never developed. Instead this area today is home to Cherry Beach , while the large breakwater known as the Leslie Street Spit is a popular park and birding area. East of the Portlands begins the well-known Beaches area of Toronto. This part of the city

664-572: A number of high end shops and restaurants. This area is also home to the Harbourfront Centre , a large cultural centre occupying 10 acres (40,000 m ) of former industrial land including an old power plant that is now a gallery. Some large industrial structures remain though most are shut down, most prominently the imposing Canada Malting Silos . Just to the north of the Gardiner is the former railway lands that have also seen rapid development in

747-608: A part of Rouge National Urban Park , a national park whose area includes the Rouge River , and its surrounding valleys. The park's waterfront area includes Rouge Pond, Rouge Beach, and the mouth of the Rouge River. The Rouge River forms the eastern end of Toronto's waterfront, as the river is used as the border between the City of Toronto and the neighbouring suburb to the east, Pickering . Two bridges connect Toronto's waterfront with Pickering,

830-413: A pedestrian bridge, and a railway bridge. Waterfront revitalization has been a hot topic of debate in Toronto for decades. In 1972, the federal government established the "Harbourfront Project" which converted part of the central waterfront from industrial uses to cultural, recreational and residential uses. Harbourfront Centre and Queen's Quay Terminal are legacies of that revitalization effort. In 1999,

913-496: A prominent Art Deco monument. The Scarborough portion of the waterfront is dominated by the Scarborough Bluffs , a series of cliffs that run along the lakeshore for 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) and standing at a height of 90 metres (300 ft) at its highest point. On the top of the cliffs are a number of suburban neighbourhoods such as Cliffside , Cliffcrest , Scarborough Village , Guildwood and West Hill . This area

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996-513: A task force was established to develop recommendations and a business plan for revitalization. In 2001, following the recommendations of the task force, the federal, provincial and municipal governments established the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (now known as Waterfront Toronto ), to lead and manage the renewal of Toronto's waterfront. The three levels of government committed $ 1.5 billion to launch

1079-538: 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. 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

1162-426: A wide promenade along the water and extensive green space. Bridges and WaveDecks rising from the boardwalk and spanning the ends of the slips will provide continuous public access to the lakeshore. Additionally, the southern half of Queens Quay will be turned into a pedestrian walkway. The proposal also emphasizes the need for stronger north–south connections between the harbour and the downtown core. The first phase

1245-524: Is 1,344,200 square kilometres (518,998.5 sq mi), of which 839,200 km (324,016.9 sq mi) is in Canada and 505,000 km (194,981.6 sq mi) is in the United States. The basin covers parts of Ontario and Quebec in Canada, parts of Minnesota , Wisconsin , Illinois , Indiana , Ohio , Pennsylvania , New York , Vermont , and nearly the entirety of the state of Michigan in

1328-626: Is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean . Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence , traversing Ontario and Quebec in Canada and New York in the United States. A section of the river demarcates the Canada–U.S. border . As the primary drainage outflow of

1411-541: Is also home to large manicured properties such as Rosetta McClain Gardens and extensive grounds of the St. Augustine Seminary . The most prominent site along the creek juncture with the lakeshore is Bluffer's Park , a large park and marina built on fill below the bluffs. The bluffs end at the ravines of Highland Creek . East of Highland Creek is Port Union , named after a port facility that existed there from 1832 to 1873. The community

1494-627: Is also the former site of Fort Rouillé , one of the first European settlements in the region. To the east of Exhibition Place begins a long stretch of former commercial and industrial areas that are rapidly being converted into some of Toronto's most expensive residences and condominiums. Historic commercial structures such as the Tip Top Tailors Building and the Queen's Quay Terminal have been turned into luxury condominiums with waterfront views. Associated with this Queens Quay has become home to

1577-494: Is an eight-storey commercial office tower located on a 2.5-acre (10,000 m) Toronto waterfront site. Corus Quay is Corus Entertainment 's new Toronto headquarters, consolidating its 10 locations and 1,200 employees into one site. The building is a collaboration between the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation and the Toronto Economic Development Corporation. The East Bayfront Precinct, where

1660-669: Is home to the Thousand Islands . Today, the St. Lawrence River begins at the outflow of Lake Ontario and flows adjacent to Gananoque , Brockville , Morristown , Ogdensburg , Massena , Cornwall , Montreal , Trois-Rivières , and Quebec City before draining into the Gulf of St. Lawrence , often given as the largest estuary in the world. The estuary begins at the eastern tip of Île d'Orléans , just downstream from Quebec City. The river becomes tidal around Quebec City. The St. Lawrence River runs 3,058 kilometres (1,900  mi ) from

1743-468: Is named after the series of four connected beaches that lie along this section of the lakeshore. The western boundary of this region was once home to the Greenwood Raceway . The racetrack was demolished in the 1990s and a new residential neighbourhood was constructed in its stead. The eastern boundary is the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant , still the source of much of Toronto's water supply and also

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1826-439: Is projected to take 25 to 30 years and an estimated $ 17 billion in public and private funds to complete. According to Waterfront Toronto's master plan, once fully developed, Toronto's waterfront will include 40,000 new residences (20% of which will be affordable housing), 40,000 new jobs, new transit infrastructure and 300 hectares (740 acres) of parks and public spaces. Waterfront Toronto's plans identify public accessibility to

1909-516: Is slated for development in the near future. Corus Quay is the first building to be built in the district as part of a public-private partnership led by TEDCO. It is expected that, in the next few years, thousands of new residences and millions of feet of commercial space will be built in this area. South of this, on two large projections separated by a ship canal, is the still-operating portion of Toronto Harbour which includes docking facilities for both freight and cruise ships. The Toronto Islands ,

1992-575: Is that country's sixth oldest surviving European place-name. The earliest regular Europeans in the area were the Basques , who came to the St Lawrence Gulf and River in pursuit of whales from the early 16th century. The Basque whalers and fishermen traded with indigenous Americans and set up settlements, leaving vestiges all over the coast of eastern Canada and deep into the St. Lawrence River. Basque commercial and fishing activity reached its peak before

2075-513: Is the second longest river in Canada. Lake Champlain and the Ottawa , Richelieu , Saint-Maurice , Saint-François , Chaudière and Saguenay rivers drain into the St. Lawrence. The St. Lawrence River is in a seismically active zone where fault reactivation is believed to occur along late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic normal faults related to the opening of the Iapetus Ocean . The faults in

2158-667: The Armada Invencible ' s disaster (1588), when the Basque whaling fleet was confiscated by King Philip II of Spain . Initially, the whaling galleons from Labourd were not affected by the Spanish defeat. Until the early 17th century, the French used the name Rivière du Canada to designate the St. Lawrence upstream to Montreal and the Ottawa River after Montreal. The St. Lawrence River served as

2241-618: The Great Lakes Basin , the St. Lawrence has the second-highest discharge of any river in North America (after the Mississippi River ) and the 16th-highest in the world. The estuary of St. Lawrence is often cited by scientists as the largest in the world. Significant natural landmarks of the river and estuary include the 1,864 river islands of the Thousand Islands , the endangered whales of Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park , and

2324-700: The Gulf of St. Lawrence : Flowing through and adjacent to numerous Indigenous homelands, the river was a primary thoroughfare for many peoples. Beginning in Dawnland at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the river borders Mi'kma'ki in the South (what is today known as the Canadian Maritimes ), and Nitassinan in the North, the national territory of the Innu people . On the south shore beyond

2407-501: The Hudson River . The Accommodation with ten passengers made her maiden voyage from Montreal to Quebec City in 66 hours, for 30 of which she was at anchor. She had a keel of 75 feet, and a length overall of 85 feet. The cost of a ticket was eight dollars upstream, and nine dollars down. She had berths that year for twenty passengers. Within a decade, daily service was available in the hotly-contested Montreal-Quebec route. Because of

2490-828: The Mi'kmaw district of Gespe'gewa'ki , the river passes Wolastokuk (the Maliseet homeland), Pαnawαhpskewahki (the Penobscot homeland), and Ndakinna (the Abenaki homeland). Continuing, the river passes through the former country of the St. Lawrence Iroquois and then three of the six homelands of the Haudenosaunee : the Mohawk or Kanienʼkehá꞉ka , the Oneida or Onyota'a:ka , and the Onondaga or Onöñda’gaga’ . In

2573-670: The Thousand Islands chain near Alexandria Bay, New York and Kingston, Ontario ; the Hochelaga Archipelago , including the Island of Montreal and Île Jésus ( Laval ); the Lake St. Pierre Archipelago (classified a biosphere world reserve by the UNESCO in 2000) and the smaller Mingan Archipelago . Other islands include Île d'Orléans near Quebec City and Anticosti Island north of the Gaspé . It

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2656-591: The 10th of August feast day for Saint Lawrence in 1535. Indigenous people use the following names: In winter, the St. Lawrence River begins producing ice in December, with the formation of ice cubes between Montreal and Quebec City . The prevailing winds and currents push this ice towards the estuary, and it reaches the east of Les Méchins at the end of December. Ice covers the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence in January and February. Ice helps navigation by preventing

2739-687: The Appalachian division at all. The source of the North River in the Mesabi Range in Minnesota (Seven Beaver Lake) is considered to be the source of the St. Lawrence River. Because it crosses so many lakes, the water system frequently changes its name. From source to mouth, the names are: The St. Lawrence River also passes through Lake Saint-Louis and Lake Saint-Pierre in Quebec. The St. Lawrence River and

2822-541: The Central Waterfront and Mimico Waterfront Park were completed in summer 2008. The first new neighborhoods to be developed by Waterfront Toronto are the East Bayfront and West Don Lands. These lands are now rezoned as mixed use developments. Based on plans developed in consultation with public stakeholders, these environmental communities will feature green roof tops, pedestrian-friendly streets, extensive parks and public spaces, affordable housing, public transit within

2905-535: The Humber to Jameson Avenue in the east is the Sunnyside area of waterfront parklands and recreational uses. Adjoining the waterfront to the north is the large High Park . The Swansea , Roncesvalles , and Parkdale older neighbourhoods are north of the waterfront in this area. East of Jameson Ave, the waterfront area is home to Exhibition Place with Ontario Place just to the south on three artificial islands. This area

2988-623: 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

3071-406: The St. Lawrence River includes: Large marine mammals travel in all the seas of the earth, the research and observations of these giants concern fishermen and shipping industry , exercise a fascination and a keen interest for laymen and, subjects of endless studies for scientists from Quebec, Canada and around the world. Thirteen species of cetaceans frequent the waters of the estuary and

3154-622: The St. Lawrence to attack the city from the west, which they successfully did at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham . The river was used again by the British to defeat the French siege of Quebec under the Chevalier de Lévis in 1760. In 1809, the first steamboat to ply its trade on the St. Lawrence was built and operated by John Molson and associates, a scant two years after Fulton's steam-powered navigation of

3237-548: The Toronto waterfront: Source: City of Toronto. The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation was formed in 2001 to oversee and lead waterfront renewal. It has subsequently been renamed as Waterfront Toronto. The organization is jointly funded by the three levels of government. The organization is overseen at the federal level by the Department of Finance, at the provincial level by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, and at

3320-773: The United States). The Seaway (including the Welland Canal ) now permits ocean-going vessels to pass all the way to Lake Superior . During the Second World War , the Battle of the St. Lawrence involved submarine and anti-submarine actions throughout the lower St. Lawrence River and the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence , Strait of Belle Isle and Cabot Strait from May to October 1942, September 1943, and again in October and November 1944. During this time, German U-boats sank several merchant marine ships and three Canadian warships. In

3403-579: The United States. The average discharge below the Saguenay River is 16,800 cubic metres per second (590,000 cu ft/s). At Quebec City, it is 12,101 m /s (427,300 cu ft/s). The average discharge at the river's source, the outflow of Lake Ontario, is 7,410 m /s (262,000 cu ft/s). The St. Lawrence River includes Lake Saint Francis at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield , Lake Saint-Louis south of Montreal and Lake Saint Pierre east of Montreal. It encompasses four archipelagoes :

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3486-674: The West Don Lands in April 2008. The Toronto waterfront has seen at least 15 design charettes over the last 65 years, the most recent being the Innovative Design Competition for the Central Waterfront that took place in 2006. This charette was won by a team led by West 8 , a landscape architecture and urban design firm from Rotterdam , in joint venture with DTAH (du Toit Allsopp Hillier), a Toronto architecture, landscape architecture and urban design firm. The proposed design includes

3569-593: The area are rift -related and comprise the Saint Lawrence rift system . According to the United States Geological Survey, the St. Lawrence Valley is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division, containing the Champlain section. However, in Canada, where most of the valley is, it is instead considered part of a distinct St. Lawrence Lowlands physiographic division, and not part of

3652-485: 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,

3735-613: The building is located, is intended to be an important public destination as well as provide a range of housing and commercial opportunities. The development achieved LEED ( Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ) Gold status for the project's environmental sustainability . The LEED rating system recognizes leading-edge buildings that incorporate design, construction and operational practices that combine healthy, high-quality and high-performance advantages with reduced environmental impacts. In addition, Corus Quay has several green roof areas,

3818-455: 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

3901-529: The early 17th century, the Huron-Wendat Nation migrated from their original country of Huronia to what is now known as Nionwentsïo centred around Wendake . Nionwentsïo occupies both the north and south shores of the river, overlapping with Nitassinan and the more western Wabanaki or Dawnland countries. Adjacent on the north shore is the Atikamekw territorial homeland of Nitaskinan and, upstream,

3984-407: The east of Cherry Street and the Inner Harbour is another area that is partially industrial and partially abandoned known as the Port Lands . This area is home to the shuttered Hearn Generating Station and the newly opened Portlands Energy Centre . There are long-term plans to transform this area into a mix of commercial and residential developments, but no firm proposals have been developed, except

4067-440: 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

4150-414: The farthest headwater to the mouth and 1,197 km (743.8 mi) from the outflow of Lake Ontario. These numbers include the estuary; without the estuary, the length from Lake Ontario is c. 500 km (c. 300 mi). The farthest headwater is the North River in the Mesabi Range at Hibbing , Minnesota. Its drainage area, which includes the Great Lakes, the world's largest system of freshwater lakes,

4233-437: The formation of waves, and therefore spray, and prevents the icing of ships. With the draining of the Champlain Sea , due to a rebounding continent from the Last Glacial Maximum , the St. Lawrence River was formed. The Champlain Sea lasted from about 13,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago and was continuously shrinking during that time, a process that continues today. The head of the St. Lawrence River, near Lake Ontario,

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4316-415: The further reaches of Anishinaabewaki, specifically the homelands of the Algonquin and Mississauga Nations. The Norse explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the 11th century and were followed by fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century European mariners, such as John Cabot , and the brothers Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real . The first European explorer known to have sailed up the St. Lawrence River itself

4399-461: The inland ports of the Great Lakes Waterway . The river has been called a variety of names by local First Nations . Beginning in the 16th century, French explorers visited what is now Canada and gave the river names such as the Grand fleuve de Hochelaga and the Grande rivière du Canada , where fleuve and rivière are two French words ( fleuve being a river that flows into the sea). The river's present name has been used since 1604 when it

4482-425: 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

4565-408: 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

4648-494: 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

4731-489: The largest tributaries of the Great Lakes . The St. Lawrence River tributaries are listed upstream from the mouth. The major tributaries of the inter-lake sections are also shown, as well as the major rivers that flow into the Great Lakes. Great Lakes tributaries are listed in alphabetical order. The list includes all tributaries with a drainage area of at least 1,000 square kilometres and an average flow of more than 10 cubic metres per second. tributary The diversity of

4814-410: The limestone monoliths of the Mingan Archipelago . Long a transportation route to Indigenous peoples , the St. Lawrence River has played a key role in the history of Canada and in the development of cities such as Montreal and Quebec City . The river remains an important shipping route as the backbone of the St. Lawrence Seaway , a lock and canal system that enables world marine traffic to access

4897-399: The main route for European exploration of the North American interior, first pioneered by French explorer Samuel de Champlain . Control of the river was crucial to British strategy to capture New France in the Seven Years' War . Having captured Louisbourg in 1758, the British sailed up to Quebec the following year thanks to charts drawn up by James Cook . British troops were ferried via

4980-433: The mouth of the Rouge River, negatively impacting the local environment. Remedial efforts began in 2001 to reverse the changes in the local environment, although the bridge and causeway remains. East of Port Union is West Rouge , Toronto's easternmost neighbourhood. The eastern terminus of Lawrence Avenue is situated near the southeast portion of West Rouge's waterfront. The easternmost portion of Toronto's waterfront forms

5063-503: The municipal level by the Waterfront Project Secretariat. The organization is directed to support the following policy objectives of the three levels of government: Source: Waterfront Toronto The President and CEO of Waterfront Toronto is George Zegarac, who joined the organization in 2019 after a 33-year tenure in the Ontario Public Service. The organization is governed by the following board of directors: Source: Waterfront Toronto Corus Quay , originally named First Waterfront Place,

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5146-476: 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

5229-403: 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

5312-415: 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

5395-401: 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 as far west as Long Branch. The western border of the old city of Toronto (with Etobicoke) is marked by the Humber River . At the waterfront, this river is crossed by the prominent new Humber Bay Arch Bridge . From

5478-541: 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

5561-574: The redevelopment initiative. Waterfront Toronto is overseen by a 13-member government appointed Board of Directors. Waterfront revitalization is concentrated on Toronto's central waterfront, an area that extends from Dowling Avenue in the west to Coxwell Avenue in the east. The revitalization of Toronto's waterfront is one of the largest urban redevelopment project currently underway in North America with 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of largely underutilized, derelict land located steps away from Canada's largest financial and cultural urban core. Full revitalization

5644-504: The revitalization of the area, including public transit , housing developments, brownfield rehabilitation, possible removal of the Gardiner Expressway in the area, the Martin Goodman Trail and lakeshore improvements, and naturalization of the Don River . Actual development of the projects is done by other entities, primarily private corporations. The projects include a series of wavedeck walkways and gathering places designed by West 8 and DTAH. The Waterfront Revitalization Task Force,

5727-407: The virtually impassable Lachine Rapids , the St. Lawrence was once continuously navigable only as far as Montreal. Opened in 1825, the Lachine Canal was the first to allow ships to pass the rapids. An extensive system of canals and locks, known as the St. Lawrence Seaway , was officially opened on 26 June 1959 by Elizabeth II (representing Canada) and President Dwight D. Eisenhower (representing

5810-482: 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

5893-431: The water, the waterfront was unchanged. The 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

5976-621: The waterfront and the development of parks and public spaces as major priorities. A variety of waterfront public space projects have already been completed by the organization including York and John Quay Promenades, improvements to Cherry Beach, the Western Beaches Watercourse, Marilyn Bell Park improvements and expansion of the Martin Goodman Trail from Marilyn Bell Park to Ontario Place and the completion of phase one Port Union Waterfront Park. The first phase on construction of

6059-593: 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

6142-545: 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

6225-527: The years since deindustrialization . This area is home to the Rogers Centre (SkyDome) and CN Tower , both of which are prominently visible from the waterfront. Between York and Yonge Streets is a cluster of large skyscrapers, many built in the 1970s in the first wave of redevelopment on the waterfront. This includes the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel and One Yonge Street . Also in this area

6308-652: Was Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant , a permanently docked cruise ship that served as a restaurant popular with tourists (now closed, and the ship has been removed) and the Redpath Sugar Building which remains an industrial site. East of Yonge Street running to Cherry Street is a stretch of area known as the East Bayfront , centred on the Parliament Street slip. Currently a mix of warehouses and brownlands it

6391-415: Was Jacques Cartier . At that time, the land along the river described as "about two leagues, a mountain as tall as a heap of wheat" was inhabited by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians . During Cartier's second voyage in 1535, because Cartier arrived in the estuary on Saint Lawrence 's feast day 10 August, he named it the Gulf of Saint Lawrence . The St. Lawrence River is today partly within the U.S. and as such

6474-706: 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

6557-578: Was centred on the Adams Creek which was the site of a local ship builder who worked for the local merchants in the area which also had a winter harbour up the mouth of the Rouge River Valley. The little harbour disappeared in the late 1870s with the arrival of the Grand Trunk Railway . The railway built a causeway , as part of a bridge project, filling in part of the river, irreversibly changing

6640-564: 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

6723-543: 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

6806-460: Was recorded on a map by Samuel de Champlain Champlain opted for the names Grande riviere de sainct Laurens and Fleuve sainct Laurens in his writings, supplanting the earlier names. In contemporary French, the name is rendered as the fleuve Saint-Laurent . The name Saint-Laurent (Saint Lawrence) was originally applied to the eponymous bay by Jacques Cartier upon his arrival into the region on

6889-437: Was to be completed by 2008. As of January 2008, no such work has been undertaken, but private developers began construction of a condominium complex at the foot of Yonge Street, and TEDCO started construction of Corus Quay . 43°38′53″N 79°20′47″W  /  43.64794°N 79.34635°W  / 43.64794; -79.34635 Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River ( French : Fleuve Saint-Laurent )

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