Port
Toronto Harbour is both a commercial port and a recreation area. Commercial activities are confined mainly to the harbour's eastern side, while the western side was developed into Harbourfront, a conversion from industrial land to recreational and cultural uses. Harbourfront has parks, hotels, an amphitheatre, and many other facilities. The Toronto Islands are also mostly recreational, although they do also contain a small community and an airport.
Toronto also has a second harbour, called the Outer Harbour (Toronto Harbour is sometimes called the Inner Harbour), but it never developed into a commercially viable project. It was created in the 1950s 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.
- Tonnage
Today, the tonnage of cargo passing through the port is made up mostly of sugar to the Redpath Sugar Refinery and aggregate materials.
- 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.
Read more about this topic: Toronto Harbour
Famous quotes containing the word port:
“It is by a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The very best place to be in all the world is St. Mary’s parish, Jamaica. And the best spot in St. Mary’s is Port Maria, though all of St. Mary’s is fine. Old Maker put himself to a lot of trouble to make that part of the island of Jamaica, for everything there is perfect.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)