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| 51. THE SHORELINE |
| Human survival is dependent on
access to water resources. In those early years of Upper Canadian
colonization, proximity to sources of water was common in virtually all
settlements. York’s location in a bay also reflects two other
basic needs, safety and social contact. The peninsula provided a
natural shelter for the settlers of York, as well as a harbour for
transportation of goods and people. To have moved further inshore
during this early period would have meant increased difficulty in
meeting all of these needs. The city grew around the harbour. As most transportation was by water, since road conditions were poor or non-existent, the shoreline was a natural site for development(1). William Allan had the first commercial wharf built in 1803, followed by Cooper, Feighan and Maitland until the shoreline was a series of jutting out wharfs(2). The construction however had adverse effects on sanitary conditions in the bay. One account from 1832 describes the frozen bay as being covered by dead horses, dogs, cats and manure which would all become part of the water supply once the ice had melted(3). Squatters huts were pitched along the gravel beach of the shoreline. All of these conditions facilitated the spread of Asiatic Cholera in the early and mid- 1800s. The water level of Lake Ontario was also in a state of flux. Natives from the area taught settlers that the lake would rise for seven years, then fall for seven, in a continuous cycle(4). Also there was a series of creeks and ravines which ran into the lake between the Humber and the Don Rivers(5). Human landscape began to slowly take effect on natural landscape. The gradual filling-in of the shoreline, both by natural and man-made methods, changed the appearance of the harbour over the years. As did the breach which was made in the peninsula in 1830(6). The opening at the head of Ashbridges Bay would open and close with storms or high water levels. In 1858 a storm finally cut the peninsula free from the mainland, forming the Eastern Gap to the east of the harbour(7). Several generations of boats have put out from Toronto harbour. In the 1830s and 1840s paddle-wheelers, powered by 2 to 5 horses tied to a tread mill, were used to cross the bay. They were replaced in 1850 by steam ferries. Navigation into the bay was aided by the construction of a lighthouse on Gibraltar point in 1809(8). Now inland, the Queenston stone lighthouse remains the second oldest lighthouse in Canada, after the Sambro Island light (1758) near Halifax(9). Mainland Toronto was alive with human developments. The wharfs, water lots and industries such as the Gooderham and Worts Windmill or the Freeland Soap and Candle Factory, shaped the shoreline of 1837 Toronto. A gritty and industrial change from the previously forested shore, sprinkled with wild strawberries, the harbour and shoreline of York was the stepping stone of Toronto. |
Notes
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| © Town of York Historical Society, 2006- All rights reserved. |