Toronto and it's Metropoletan Area

The City of Toronto covers 97 sq km (38 sq mi).

It is composed of six communities: Toronto, North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, York, and East York.

The city and its surrounding area is called Toronto’s census metropolitan area (CMA).

A CMA is a geographic area that contains the main labor market of an urbanized zone; that is, the area from which people commute to work within the zone, including downtown.

Toronto’s CMA covers 5,868 sq km (2,266 sq mi).

By comparison, the CMA of Montréal, Québec, is 4,024 sq km (1,554 sq mi), and that of Vancouver, British Columbia, is 2,821 sq km (1,089 sq mi).

Government buildings are prominent in the city. Queen’s Park, the site of the Ontario Parliament buildings, stands at the head of Toronto’s wide ceremonial street, University Avenue.

Conspicuous in the downtown are the new Metro Hall and the more spectacular City Hall with two curved towers that stands in Nathan Phillips Square.

Ontario Power Generation operates from a striking, partly solar-heated tower.

Other points of interest include Saint James Anglican Cathedral and Saint Michael’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, both downtown.

The nearby Saint Lawrence Market is crowded on Saturday mornings.

Commanding the whole region, the CN Tower near the central waterfront rises high over the city at 553 m (1,815 ft). It is the tallest freestanding structure in the world.

Next to it is Rogers Centre (formerly known as the SkyDome), the first domed stadium with a retractable roof.

High-rise office buildings and hotels dominate the financial district; the tallest, First Canadian Place, is 72 stories.

Across from the classical-style Union Station is the imposing Royal York Hotel, at one time the largest hotel in the British Commonwealth.

An underground concourse, bordered by shops, runs beneath the tall buildings for nearly 2 km.

On the route is Toronto Eaton Centre, a large mall with three levels of shops.

Clusters of offices with shopping malls are found up the Yonge Street corridor and around suburban centers.

Across Toronto Bay from the central waterfront are the Toronto Islands, containing a large park, with housing at the east end and an airport at the west end.

The Don River enters the bay near downtown.