ers) to enter and exit into the Inner Harbour. Before the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport was built, the waterway was wide with a shallow sandy shoal surrounding what became Hanlan's Point.
The Eastern Gap is approximately 200 metres (660 ft) wide passenger between Wards Island and the western edge of the Port Lands and used by most freighter to enter into the Inner Harbour and port facilities. The gap was formed over from 1852 to 1858 when storms caused a break in the sandy spit that connected the area with mainland. Prior to the 1800s, small boat users had to use a portage on the western end of the sandy spit peninsula (thus requiring them to travel a short distance on land) from Lake Ontario to the inner harbour. After 1858, the Harbour Trust made the temporary channel into a permanent waterway.
Toronto also has a second harbour, called the Outer Harbour (Toronto Harbour is sometimes called the Inner Harbour). It was developed in the 1950s and 1960s by the Toronto Harbour Commission through the construction of a new breakwater called the Outer Harbour East Headland. At that time, it was expected that there would be a great upswing in the number of ships calling at Toronto once the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened. However, the need for an extra harbour never materialized, and private boats are the only traffic usually found there now. Ports Toronto operates a marina in the Outer Harbour and the municipal Cherry Beach park is also located in the Outer Harbour.
Today, port facilities are limited to the eastern shore of the harbour, with the exception of the Redpath Sugar Refinery at the foot of Jarvis Street. The tonnage of cargo passing through the port is made up mostly of sugar to Redpath and aggregate materials (cement, stone), salt delivered to facilities on the eastern shore of the harbour.
- In 2007, the port handled 1.6 million tonnes of traffic, a 0.3% share of national port traffic, 16th out of 19 Canada Port Authority ports by traffic.
- In 2006, Transport Canada ranked Toronto 39th out of 313 ports in all of Canada in total tonnage shipped.
- Statistics Canada ranks the port 15th in shipping activity in Ontario.
The makeup of the soil between the mainland and the island varies:
- Stone near the Western Gap
- Mud near the north shore, mouth of the Don River
- Sand near the airport and western parts of the island's north shore
- Clay near the centre of the harbour
Gaasyendietha is Toronto's legendary Loch Ness Monster and it is sometimes spotted in Lake Ontario and even within the Toronto Harbour. The story of Gaasyendietha is a Native Canadian myth from the Seneca tribe.
The original shoreline of the northern shore were low sandy bluffs, just south of today's Front Street. The mouth of the harbour pointed west. Fort York, on the north shore of the bay, near the mouth of Garrison Creek, guarded the harbour's mouth. It was briefly captured by American forces during the War of 1812.
The islands were originally a low sandy peninsula forming the southern limit of the bay. The Scarborough Bluffs are much larger bluffs that lie approximately ten kilometres east of the harbour. Strong lake currents over time washed the sand eroded from the bluffs westwards to form the peninsula surrounding the bay.
The peninsula became the Toronto Islands through the result of two storms and man-made activity. In 1852, a storm created a channel through the eastern edge of the peninsula that formed the south edge of the bay. The storm washed through excavations made for sand for local construction. In 1858, another storm widened the channel and made it permanent.
The eastern shore of the bay, approximately six kilometres east, was a marsh around the mouth of the Don River. In addition to the Don River a number of smaller creeks flowed into the bay. The original site of the town of York had half a dozen short creeks that flowed through it. As the town developed they all became polluted, and were buried. As the city grew the larger creeks, including Russell Creek, Taddle Creek and Garrison Creek, were also filled in.
The town of York was 