Woodbine Beach

This guide to Woodbine Beach in Toronto opens in the nineteen twenties, when this dark, roadless stretch of shoreline was known only as The Cut, a hideout for rum runners landing boats and unloading crates of whisky bound for the United States. It follows how the area stayed marshy and half-lawless for decades, tucked beside the drained wetlands of Ashbridges Bay, with no streetlight or road anywhere near it. Listen for how quiet this same sand once was, long before anyone brought a beach towel.