The history of Toronto's shoreline

[@QuestforaMeaningfulLife]

Best Toronto history content on youtube. Thank you for doing this.

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@blairwilliams136]

I completely agree , I feel like this show should be featured on TVO on Sunday mornings or something.

[@Sean-rm1in]

The effort you put into each video you make is incredible

[@OldTorontoSeries]

I appreciate that!

[@RyanFlyinHigh]

These videos are phenomenal. I absolutely love them. Thanks so much for producing them. Haven't lived there in 4 years now but every time I go back, I feel at home.

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Thanks for watching!

[@TalD]

It would be fantastic to see a museum somewhere on the waterfront to showcase items from around the city but also anything interesting developers have dug up or found from the harbourfront as well. I've heard rumours for years the city is looking into it, and that they have many items in storage. They should put it on display here!

[@cinthia9602]

Great video! I absolutely love the waterfront. It is my favourite part of Toronto!

[@mgo2372]

Agreed! Take a look at the map. From 1834 to 1858 - 1860- In a 24 year the city more than doubled in size with magnificent buildings. It exponential growth to 1860. Who were these people who lived here that could build so quickly. Simply amazing!

[@georgejetson1025]

Dude , your channel is damn interesting ! Well researched and presented . Your subscriber count should be much higher. Subscribed

[@johnpatterson4272]

Front St. was the original shoreline historically, as there is a noticeable decline on the roadway going southbound on York, Bay, Yonge and Parliament Sts. The Island airport now deserves a 'jet' runway with direct routes across Canada and the US, maybe the UK. Turn the old Ontario Place into a state-of-the-art amusement park, with its own radio and TV stations, camping ground, hotels and refurb the Budweiser Stage. I'm thinking a Toronto Great Lakes Cruise Lines terminal where the old Rochester Hydrofoil Port still is. Lots of possibilities.

[@dougiebee8504]

Wow. This is incredible.

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Thanks Dougie!

[@samjones1954]

once again, excellent. I still want to know if there really is a tunnel from castle loma to the harbour

[@RyanFlyinHigh]

That would be cool to find out about!

[@TheXenProject]

no but there is a tunnel from Casa Loma to, I believe, the Spadina (spa-dee-nah) house... or something nearby Casa Loma

[@captfrank3785]

Excellent.....Bravo.

[@Ferda1964]

Great show.Does anybody know why the spelling on the TO Harbor Commission building bears US spelling?

[@McKaysEurope2023]

Yes, the architect was American

[@drlatham22]

Most people are not aware of the amount of alteration has occurred to the land along the harbor. Am I correct in understanding that Fort York was originally at the edge of the lake until the fill and extension of land was done?

[@TheXenProject]

Not sure if it was still on the shoreline in 1911, but the southern wall was in the 1800s. www.fortyork.ca/resources/fort-york-maps.html

[@murrayscott3513]

Interesting series. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

[@dmytroshemshur3709]

Great content

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Thanks!

[@cinthia9602]

How stable can the buildings south of the commission building be then? Just a thought

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Good question

[@stewartgillis4851]

Small point but that man in the skiff near the HCB was not paddling.He was ROWING . The history of the sport and pastime of rowing along the Toronto lakeshore might be a worthy topic on its own in this excellent series.

[@davegreenlaw5654]

Agreed. Especially when you consider that our CFL football team originated from a rowing club.

[@andrew_91]

Thank you sir! amazing work!!!!

[@OldTorontoSeries]

My pleasure!

[@coplini]

Great stuff! Wwould be nice if you tied some more people into these vids

[@harley4957]

Thank you

[@AK.__]

Great video, thank you! Never knew this. I actually thought the video will be about of un-accuracy of old maps and not about actual developments and shore re-construction.

[@JustFluffyQuiltingYarnCrafts]

Great information. Love Toronto. ❤

[@nameredacted1979]

Yes, SkyDome! 👏🙌👏🙌

[@anndavidson287]

I must be living in the lake over dead horses. Thanks for sharing.😊

[@sukhbirgrewal2992]

Toronto's shoreline is an example of how not to develop a lakefront. Anyone who says otherwise, likely hasn't lived in a large city which has done it properly. Chicago is almost identical to Toronto in size and geographic layout, yet is a prime example of how the lakeshore can be developed to be enjoyed by the residents of the city. It's a shame we don't have politicians in this city that care

[@BasementEngineer]

I don't think that Chicago is a good axample for any city to follow!

[@andrewseguin9443]

I’ve always felt the eastern waterfront has been such a wasted opportunity. Wouldn’t parks or condos be better than mounds of dirt and weird old factories

[@TheXenProject]

There's plenty of plans for the portlands, but for the most part it has become the home of Hollywood North

[@karihartikainen2147]

Why no mention of the promenade? The original intent of Toronto's waterfront was to be for the people. Either 100 feet or metres (likely feet), of a strip of land south of front Street was to be forever saved for the public's use of the lake. The allure of trains and the corporations/trusts that ran and built them, ultimately won the use. The logistics of the location, made converting the land for use by railroads and accompanying industries made great value and sense. Sourcing of the fact, likely came from the book: 'the historical atlas of Toronto's'.

[@davegreenlaw5654]

You missed the chance to talk about the whale bones found when they excavated for the Skydome. I guess that could also fill an entire video by itself.

[@2.5chainz]

it’s soooo disappointing they made Toronto’s waterfront so ugly. I look at places like Chicago to reminisce about what we could’ve had

[@alessandrapirelli7040]

Outstanding presentation! ex-pat

[@RB-im5mk]

Sadly, when I was younger you could see the lake from Front Street; it's now all covered by buildings and bridges.

[@charlesrb3898]

Please drop the background music as it is distracting.

[@Alsatiagent]

A common sight in the 1970's was that of large slicks of dead fish (smelt, I think). There was always one sorry and doomed individual still desperately gasping for air at the surface.

[@kermitfrog593]

Not much you can do about the waterfront. You wouldn't know Toronto had a lake unless you were right by the shore - too many ugly buildings cover the view, and the water is polluted you can't go in it. Looked better in the eighties.

[@johnandrews3568]

My parents told me of the shit storm over the Gardiner and how it would cut the city off from the lake (even though industry and politics did that 100 years before).... but the forest of condo towers has destroyed the waterfront with unaffordable ugly glass monoliths

[@thet3504]

So everything south of Harbour Street is NOT indigenious lands..

[@annmarsolais1171]

When I was a child , 50ies/ 60ies, l remember the garbage trucks would line up to dump on the shoreline where the bulldozers would spread it all out

[@TheSofaSessions]

Mmmmm you can almost smell the dead horses on a warm morning! Jks :P

[@OldTorontoSeries]

not an ideal smell

[@travisazzopardi5383]

I grew up in the Junction and it smelled like dead animals all year round. But much much worse in the summer. Lol!

[@samjones1954]

@@travisazzopardi5383 just a thought... where not the slaughter yards located there?

[@christrudell7966]

Too many spongies now

[@leddred2078]

With Core Development Group limited a billion dollar company going to spend billions on 4000 or more residential detached homes in Toronto ( that's almost same number of under 450000 single detached residential homes available for sale in the entire Edmonton Alberta area.) More companies are starting to look at doing this as well. And then corporate companies will own them all and plan to rent top and bottom for upto 3000 a month. There will be no residential single detached homes for sale in Canada as they will be held by big multi billion dollar companies. More billion dollar companies and investors will soon follow as well. There will be no jobs for realtors and no where for people to afford to live. In the United States hedge funds are buying whole neighborhoods, President Biden is passing legislation to stop - it will PM Trudeau do the same?