Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...
. It was once part of the marsh that lay east of
Toronto Islands
The Toronto Islands are a chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario, south of mainland Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Comprising the only group of islands in the western part of Lake Ontario, the Toronto Islands are located just offshore from the ...
and
Toronto Harbour
Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a natural bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational boating, including personal vessels and pleasure boats providing scenic or p ...
.
History
Namesake
The bay is named for Sarah Ashbridge, a British loyalist from
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
whose
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
once lived nearby on a farm. It was once a five square kilometre marsh on the Don River delta and one of the largest wetlands in
Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada (, also the Eastern provinces, Canadian East or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of Hudson Bay/ Hudson Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newf ...
.
A breakwall formed on the western end with an outlet into Toronto Bay.
Fisherman’s Island and reclamation
Unwin Avenue follows the former sandbar or chain of islands once called Fisherman’s Island that once sheltered the bay from the western end of the current Inner Portlands to beyond Leslie Street to near Woodbine Avenue where an outlet once existed. During its existence as the sandbar was home fishing community (fish huts and homes) along with St. Nicholas Anglican Church, a school as well as 35 homes from 1911 to 1924. Historically it was a sandbar peninsula when Toronto Islands was still linked as long by wide landform.
Before 1900, the bay was used to obtain ice during the winter months. These operations stopped after the bay became polluted to the point the water became unsafe:
* Samuel Hill's Ice House at Leslie Street and Eastern Avenue
* Graham's Ice House at Lake (now Knox) and Eastern Avenue
* Martin McKee's Ice House at the foot of Carlaw Avenue (now an infill area near Lake Shore Boulevard)
Due to industrial development and sewage disposal into the marsh, in 1910 a Toronto Board of Trade proposal for Ashbridges Bay was for an industrial district for industrial offices and sites served by railway lines, public warehouses alongside docking facilities south of Keating Channel to the Eastern Gap and a parkland/recreational strip at the south end. In 1912, the Toronto Harbour Commission drained it and reclaimed the land. The Ashbridges Bay Reclamation Scheme was the largest engineering project in North America at that time, filling in an area from Cherry Street to Leslie Street to create the Port Lands Industrial District and building the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant. When it was completed in the 1920s, only a fragment of the original Ashbridges Bay remained, and the mouth of the Don River had been dramatically altered, instead flowing through the Keating Channel. The bay's size was shrunk to the area between the Port Lands and Woodbine Beach.
Ashbridges Bay Park opened in 1977. In the early 2000s, the park was improved by Waterfront Toronto, including the building of a skateboard park. The current bay is surrounded by marinas, the treatment plant, and a small tree-lined section along Lake Shore Boulevard East such that the original natural shoreline has disappeared completely. Ashbridges Bay is also a popular location for fireworks on
Canada Day
Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day, is the national day of Canada. A Public holidays in Canada, federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, with the passing of the B ...
and
Victoria Day
Victoria Day () is a federal Canadian public holiday observed on the last Monday preceding May 25 to honour Queen Victoria, who is known as the "Mother of Confederation". The holiday has existed in Canada since at least 1845, originally on Vic ...
. Cherry Street Beach is the old remaining portion of the sandbar.