Boating on the Humber River
The Humber River's first rapids, at Bloor Street, have long kept boats from navigating far up the river. Below those rapids, however, boating has been an important aspect of the Humber's history. For centuries, Aboriginal peoples approached the beginning of the Toronto Carrying Place near here in bark canoes - their remarkable craft that were quickly adopted by early Europeans. In the late 1670s, canoes were joined by French sailing ships that unloaded goods to be transported along the portage or, after 1720, to supply the French trading post at Toronto.
In the 1790s, with British settlement and the establishment of water-powered mills, a growing number of vessels were moving supplies and produce up and down the river below the first rapids. Around 1800, a shipyard existed on this side of the Humber, just south of Bloor, that produced sailing ships - including one named Toronto.
After the mid-19th century, commercial shipping was gradually replaced by recreational boating. Boathouses and marinas were built on the Humber's lower banks, and crowds would gather along the shore to watch boat races.
Today, boats can still be launched near here, perhaps just a few steps from where Aboriginal peoples and European traders used to push their canoes into the river.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.