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A ribbon of islands (see Toronto Islands) shelters Toronto’s harbor and provides a car-free retreat just a short ferry ride from downtown. The islands have bike paths, picnic areas, beaches and boardwalk, and an amusement park (see Centre Island).

Tourists and locals alike flock here for the hundreds of shops and eateries (see Entertainment Venues). The glass vaulted roof is modeled on Milan’s 19th-century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

The garden’s design, inspired by the music of Baroque composer J. S. Bach, is best seen from above; the swirling pathways and plantings do indeed seem musical.

Soaring towers, such as those of the modernist Toronto-Dominion Centre (see Toronto-Dominion Centre), signal the heart of Toronto’s – and Canada’s – financial district. The nation’s major banks, insurance companies, and stockbrokers ply their trades as wind-jostled workers hurry along canyon-like streets.

One look at Toronto from above and it’s clear it’s a green city: stately canopy trees line streets and snake along ravines.

The space-age design of this music hall, in the core of the theater district, features a distinctive glass canopy (see Roy Thomson Hall).

A relic from the days when passenger rail was Canada’s primary mode of transportation, this station has lost none of its grandeur since it opened in 1927, still serving as an impressive gateway to the city (see Union Station).

When opened in 1965, the building, with its two curving towers, was controversial in conservative Toronto; it has since become a much-loved icon of the city’s modern architecture (see City Hall).

Founded in 1793 and the site of the 1813 Battle of York, in which the fort was destroyed and then rebuilt, Fort York has Canada’s best collection of buildings from the War of 1812 era. Eight original structures stand on this triangular piece of land, among them blockhouses, barracks, and officers’ quarters. Many of the other buildings were torn down in the 1950s (see Fort York).

If the weather cooperates, it’s possible to see the mists rising above Niagara Falls, 80 miles (130 km) to the southeast (see Niagara Falls). The gentle curve of land along the shores of Lake Ontario reveals why the region, which extends from Toronto to Niagara, is known as the Golden Horseshoe.