Kingston ON (Ontario Canada, Lake Ontario)

Kingston is a Lake Ontario/St Lawrence River cruise port and city in Canada's Ontario Province (Frontenac County) with population around 125,000. The city is located at Cataraqui River's mouth (Rideau Canal/Lake Ontario's eastern end/Saint Lawrence River's entrance in the lake). Kingston ON is approx 160 mi (260 km/road distance) from Toronto (province's capital and Canada's largest city/to the west along the lake) and approx 170 mi (270 km) from Montreal (Quebec's capital and Canada's second-largest city/to the northeast).

St Lawrence Seaway is a Canada-USA system of rivers, locks, artificial canals and channels that allows ocean ships to navigate inland from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes (terminus at Duluth MN, Lake Superior). The Seaway interconnects large industrial regions located between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and includes Welland Canal.

As one of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario has surface area (7340 mi2/19000 km2), water volume (393 mi3/1640 km3) max depth (804 ft/245 m), largest cities in New York USA (Rochester NY) and Ontario Canada (Hamilton, Kingston, Mississauga, Oshawa, Toronto).

The settlement (as Fort Cataraqui) was founded by the French in the late-17th-century as a trading post and military base (later renamed Fort Frontenac) and was incorporated (as town) in 1838 and (as city) in 1846. The current name (Kingston) was given by the British in 1787. In 1841, the town became the capital of the United Canadas (British colony between 1841-67) during which time it was heavily fortified. Because of its rich history, the city has listed 1211 properties, including UNESCO World Heritage, National Historic- and Provincially Significant sites.

King's Highway 401 runs across the city's northern part. King's Highway 15 links to Ottawa. Interstate 81 (via Highway 401) connects to the St Lawrence River's Thousand Islands/Mille-Iles (a popular travel tourism region consisting of 1864 islands on the Canada-USA border).

Regularly scheduled ferries (including ships specializing in tours during summer) connect Kingston's downtown with Wolfe Island (the largest in the Thousand Islands archipelago, with land area 48 mi2 / 124 km2). Seasonal ferryboats link (via Wolfe Island) with Cape Vincent (NY USA). Trains interlink Kingston with Windsor ON and Quebec City, as well as with Ottawa (Canada's capital) via the Toronto-Montreal railway.

Before the Coronavirus crisis, Kingston Airport (aka Norman Rogers Airport) served regular domestic flights (by Air Canada) linking to Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.

The current-day city's economy is heavily based on tourism and public institutions/services. The largest industries are health care, higher education, government institutions/services), research and manufacturing, logistics/transportation. The city's largest employers are Canadian Forces Base Kingston, Queen's University, Kingston General Hospital, Limestone District School Board, Correctional Service of Canada. The most visited tourist attractions are Canada's Penitentiary Museum, the National Historic Sites (mainly Fort Henry and Bellevue House), Wolfe Island (accessed via ferries), downtown's waterfront, the Thousand Islands. Domestic tourists are also attracted via several annual festivals, including WritersFest, Feb Fest, Wolfe Island Music Festival, Blues Festival, Jazz Festival, Canadian Film Festival, Reelout Queer Film Festival, Artfest, Buskers Rendezvous, Skeleton Park Arts Festival, Dia de los Muertos Festival, as well as annual sailing events (like the Canadian Olympic-training Regatta, lake cruisetours) and sports activities like wreck diving, lawn bowling, golfing, rugby, football, volleyball.