Horseshoe Bay (), formerly known as Whytecliff (1937–1945) and White Cliff City (1909–1937), is a community in West Vancouver, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is part of the Greater Vancouver area and marks the entrance to Howe Sound. It is also the western terminus of both Highway 1 on the BC mainland and the main route of the Trans-Canada Highway on the Canadian mainland. The Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal is one of BC Ferries' busiest terminals, serving an estimated 7 million passengers and 3 million vehicles every year.
History
The indigenous Squamish people of the area called the bay , meaning "sizzling waters", because they observed salmon pushing schools of herring to the surface, giving the appearance of bubbling or sizzling water.
Howe Sound () was later charted in 1909 by an Admiralty Survey Expedition, which, upon seeing the white weathered cliffs of the peninsula's tip south of Horseshoe Bay, named the area "White Cliff Point". An existing settlement there was also given the name White Cliff City. In the late 1930s, Colonel Albert Whyte, one of the sponsors of the expedition, purchased a large amount of land in the area and persuaded the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (present-day BC Rail) to adopt the name Whytecliffan intentional misspelling of White Cliffas the official name of the settlement on December 7, 1937. Whyte was thus able to memorialize himself until July 28, 1945, when the community elected to adopt the present name of Horseshoe Bay, on account of the adjacent bay's horseshoe shape.
Horseshoe Bay is the location of one of the busiest BC Ferries terminals, the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. It has an estimated annual traffic of 7 million passengers and 3 million vehicles. Because of the presence of the ferry terminal, it is considered a control city on the Upper Levels Highway westbound.