Points of Interest > Ashbridge's Bay
settler accounts of the great marsh at the mouth of the Don River bear
little resemblance to the industrial landscape that appears in its
place today. As English writer Anna Jameson wrote in the spring of
1837, "this marsh, intersected by inlets and covered with reeds, is the
haunt of thousands of wild fowl, and of the terrapin, or small turtle
of the lake; and as evening comes on, we see long rows of red lights
from the fishing boats gleaming across the surface of the water, for
thus they spear the lake salmon, the bass and the pickereen."
Ashbridge's Marsh looking northeast, circa 1909
City of Toronto Archives, Series 376, File 4, Item 63
Ashbridge's Marsh was indeed an incredible sight. Over five square
kilometres in size, it was one of the largest wetlands in eastern
Canada, and supported a vast range of migratory birds and other
wildlife. Located on the west side of Ashbridge's Bay, the marsh
extended as far east as the today's Leslie Street. Up until the late
1850s, a narrow peninsula extending from Ward's Island to the Lake
Ontario shore near Woodbine Beach separated the Bay from Lake Ontario
and the harbour. In 1858, a winter storm breached the sandbar,
separating the Toronto Islands from the peninsula.
By the middle decades of the nineteenth century, industrial development
along the shores of the Bay and the Lower Don River, together with the
disposal of increasing quantities of sewage into the marsh, had caused
serious pollution problems. One of the worst offenders was the
Gooderham & Worts cattle byres, located east of the Don River mouth
and south of the GTR tracks. Here, Gooderham & Worts fattened cows
and pigs with the waste grain "swill" from the distilling process. By
the 1880s, the Company's cattle operations had grown to seven massive
sheds or "byres" housing up to 4000 head of cattle over the winter
months. Liquid manure in quantities of up to 80,000 gallons a day
drained directly into the marsh. Decades of complaints by area
residents produced little response by either the Company or the City.
Not until the threat of a cholera outbreak loomed in the early 1890s,
and the City faced a series of legal actions due to conditions in the
marsh, were any attempts made to abate the pollution problem in
Ashbridge's Bay. In 1892 the City threatened Gooderham & Worts with
legal proceedings, and the Company implemented a filtration system for
wastes later that fall. The following year, City Engineer E.H. Keating
oversaw the dredging a narrow channel through the marsh with openings
to the lake in the east and to Toronto harbour in the west. "Keating's
Cut" improved the circulation of waters in the marsh, but did little to
address the ongoing problem of sewage pollution in the Bay.
Beginning in 1912, the newly created Toronto Harbour Commission (THC)
drafted plans to drain and fill the marshlands in response to growing
public health concerns, and the need for new port and industrial lands.
The Ashbridge's Bay Reclamation Scheme would become the largest
engineering project on the continent at that time, filling in an area
from Cherry to Leslie Streets to create the Port Industrial District.
By the time work was completed in the 1920s, only a fragment of the
original Ashbridge's Bay remained, and the mouth of the Don River had
been dramatically altered.
Ashbridge's Bay Improvement, circa 1890s.
City of Toronto Archives, Series 376, File 4, Item 47
Industry began to move out of the portlands area in the 1970s, leaving
behind heavily polluted sites (uses of the portlands included oil
refining and coal storage, waste disposal and incineration, and heavy
manufacturing). In 2001, the governments of Toronto, Ontario and Canada
came together to create the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization
Corporation (TWRC) (now known as Waterfront Toronto) to oversee the
renewal and redevelopment of the waterfront. For more information on
these plans, see the Waterfront Toronto website.
Text: Jennifer Bonnell
Gene. "Planning Urban Waterfront Industrial Districts: Toronto's
Ashbridge's Bay, 1889-1910." Urban History Review 17.2 (1988): 77-91.
Jameson, Anna Brownell. Winter studies and summer rambles in Canada: selections. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1985.
Royal Commission of the Future of the Toronto Waterfront. Regeneration:
Toronto's Waterfront and the Sustainable City, Final Report. Toronto:
Stinson, Jeffery. The Heritage of the Port Industrial District. Vol. 1. Toronto: Toronto Harbour Commissioners, 1990.
Wickson, Ted. Reflections of Toronto Harbour: 200 years of port
activity and waterfront development. Toronto: Toronto Port Authority,