Jan 3, 2014

Cold Port in Toronto

Winter, snow and ice never stop the Ships in the Port of Toronto from connecting the city to every continent on earth!  In fact this has been a system of a seamless network of inter modal links to road, rail and air transportation for over 100 years in the downtown core.

On average there are over two million tonnes of cargo that pass through this Port relieving our already congested highways of over tens of thousands of truck off the roads.

The Port also does warehousing and staging.  As well, there are cruise ships and passengers from around the world who pass through the International Marine Passenger Terminal.

The picture below of the pipe converging in the centre is the location of the now de-commissioned Richard L. Hearn Generating Station on January 3, 2012.  This turned out to be one of my favorite pictures I've taken, only because of the nostalgia to me.

The steam you see in the foreground drifting past the old stack is from the Portland Energy Centre.  the Portland Plant uses natural gas to produce electricity and the old Hearn plant originally used coal but was using natural gas as well prior to being shut down in 1983.

There is also a nice view off of the Outer Harbour Marina on Unwin Avenue looking across the Lake Ontario.  Not much activity these days, that'll all change soon though.

Finally, another picture of the iconic Life Guard House, which does stand out on Cherry Beach now that the swimmers and sunbathers are gone and there is nothing but snow and ice.  The house has been here since the 1930's and other than the occasional wood treatment or paint job, it remains exactly as it has always been.