Sarah Ashbridge a British loyalist from Philadelphia lends her name to this very bay. Can you imagine her family’s farm overlooking this vast wetland? Ashbridge’s Bay once a five square kilometre marsh was one of the largest in Eastern Canada. It lay east of the Toronto Islands a vital part of the Don River delta.
The area has seen dramatic transformations. Before 1900 winter ice harvesting was a common sight here. Samuel Hill Graham and Martin McKee all ran ice houses along the bay. Pollution sadly ended this practice. The water became unsafe.
Industrial development and sewage polluted the marsh. A 1910 Toronto Board of Trade proposal envisioned an industrial district. This included railways warehouses and docking facilities. A park was also planned a small consolation for the natural landscape’s fate.
The Ashbridges Bay Reclamation Scheme a massive North American engineering project began in 1912. The Toronto Harbour Commission drained the marsh. Land from Cherry Street to Leslie Street was filled creating the Port Lands Industrial District. The Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant was also built. By the 1920s only a small fragment of the original bay remained. The Don River’s mouth was diverted through the Keating Channel.
Fisherman’s Island a former sandbar sheltered the bay. A fishing community thrived there for years. St Nicholas Anglican Church a school and 35 homes once stood on this now-vanished island.
Ashbridge’s Bay Park finally opened in 1977. Waterfront Toronto improved it in the early 2000s adding a skateboard park. Today marinas the treatment plant and a tree-lined section along Lake Shore Boulevard East surround the bay. The original shoreline is completely gone.
Ashbridge’s Bay still holds its own magic. It’s a popular fireworks location for Canada Day and Victoria Day. Cherry Street Beach is a vestige of the old sandbar peninsula. The bay a transformed yet enduring part of Toronto’s history. It speaks of industry reclamation and the enduring spirit of this remarkable city.