Keating Channel

Keating Channel
River
Channel, looking east from Cherry St. The channel ends about 5 m behind the camera's viewpoint, the Don River entering in the far background.
Name origin: Named for Edward Henry Keating
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Municipality	Toronto
Part of	Great Lakes Basin
Source	Don River
- elevation	74 m (243 ft)
- coordinates	43°39′05″N 79°20′52″W / 43.65139°N 79.34778°W / 43.65139; -79.34778
Mouth	Toronto Harbour
- location	Toronto
- elevation	74 m (243 ft)
- coordinates	43°38′46″N 79°21′27″W / 43.64611°N 79.35750°W / 43.64611; -79.35750Coordinates: 43°38′46″N 79°21′27″W / 43.64611°N 79.35750°W / 43.64611; -79.35750
Length	1 km (1 mi)
Location of the mouth of the Keating Channel in Toronto

The Keating Channel is a 1,000-metre (3,300 ft) long waterway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It connects the Don River to inner Toronto Harbour (Toronto Bay) on Lake Ontario. The channel is named after Edward Henry Keating (1844-1912), a city engineer (1892-1898) who proposed the creation of the channel in 1893. The channel was built to connect Ashbridge's Bay to the harbour; later, the Don was diverted into the channel, and its river mouth filled in.

Prior to the 19th century, the Don River naturally entered Toronto Harbour in two mouths, one roughly near where Keating Channel now flows out and one further south. In the late 19th century, a public works program was started to straighten the lower part of the Don River south of the Winchester Street Bridge. The project was called the "Don Improvement Project". The goal of the project was to alleviate floods on the lower Don that were periodically washing out bridges. It was also done to create additional wharf space for the Toronto harbour. When it was completed, the river was directed south into Ashbridge's Bay.

At the time Ashbridge's Bay was still a lacustrine marsh. It was heavily polluted by local industry. The water from the river was diverted into the bay with the hope that it would flush the bay of the poor water. However the flow of water introduced raw sewage in the river into the bay. The bay water remained stagnant and was increasingly becoming a serious health risk. The Keating Channel was proposed as a method of directing the dirty river water into the harbour thus dispersing it more rapidly.

The channel was planned to go from the northeast corner of the inner harbour east towards Leslie Street and join up with the Coatsworth Cut at the foot Coxwell Avenue. However, the portion east of the Don River was never completed and it was closed in 1916. The channel was completed in 1922 after eight years of construction. The completed channel now runs from the harbour east to the mouth of the river, a distance of about 800 metres.

The original mouth of the Don is buried under infill near where the Gardiner Expressway meets Cherry Street. The original course from the mouth upstream now lies underneath railway tracks used by GO Transit for storage.