In 1843 James Douglas led the effort to construct an outpost on Vancouver Island for the Hudson's Bay Company.

[9] On 11 March 1850 HMS Driver was docked in the harbour to witness Richard Blanshard assume the Governorship of the newly formed Colony of Vancouver Island and issued a seventeen gun salute.

Both of the gold rushes swelled traffic through the harbour as a massive influx of people came to Fort Victoria to buy permits and supplies before setting out for the mainland.

Later in 1882 Irving helped to form the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company (CPNC) and the Pioneer Line ceased to exist.

In that first year of service Yosemite set a speed record of four hours and 20 minutes for the 72-nautical-mile (133 km; 83 mi) run from Vancouver to Victoria.

[11] On 4 May 1863 Joseph Spratt and Johann Kriemler started the Albion Iron Works that would later become the Victoria Machinery Depot shipbuilding company on property adjacent to the Upper Harbour.

[11] The successor to that line is the Victoria – Courtenay train operated by Via Rail over the Johnson Street Bridge (which opened in January 1924).

The Victoria Yacht Club was founded on 8 June 1892 by a group of 46 yachtsmen and is the oldest sailing association in Western Canada.

[16] In 1912, William D'Oyly Rochfort designed the Victoria Yacht Club clubhouse on Ripon Road, Cadboro Bay.

Construction of the provincial Parliament Buildings overlooking the south side of James Bay (Inner Harbour) began in 1893.

[25] In 1901 Captain John Voss and Norman Luxton set sail from Oak Bay to circumnavigate the world's oceans in the 38-foot (12 m) dugout canoe Tilikum.

[11] After the 1914 opening of the Panama Canal the city of Victoria sought to increase ship traffic to the harbour and built the breakwater and Ogden Point piers in 1916 and 1918 respectively for $5 million.

[28] The first floatplane landed in Victoria in 1919 when William Boeing and Eddie Hubbard beached their plane near Shoal Point as part of a new U.S. International Air Mail service that also stopped at Vancouver and Seattle.

The Art Deco building featured a 24.4-metre-high (80 ft) tower that was used as an illuminated aerodrome beacon for aviators to put into Victoria Harbour at night.

[12] To carry out the wartime work in 1941 VMD bought the Rithet piers at the Outer Wharf and 11 hectares (27 acres) of surrounding land.

[30] On 20 June 1942 the Victoria-built HMCS Quesnel, which was based at Esquimalt, responded to a torpedo attack by the Japanese submarine I-25 upon SS Fort Camosun off of Cape Flattery in Washington, US.

The British coal-burning freighter Fort Camosun was on her maiden voyage carrying zinc, lead, and plywood from Victoria to Britain.

After February 1964 HMCS Malahat occupied building 61 at CFB Esquimalt before moving to the current location at 20 Huron Street overlooking Victoria Harbour on 14 March 1992.

However, in 1984 the last of the Victoria Harbour lumber shipping companies, Sooke Forest Products, filed for bankruptcy.

Rithet was named) built a large dock facility near Shoal Point, known as the Outer Wharves, which was initially used for sugar warehousing.

[9] On 31 March 1990 the BC Packers' cold storage fish factory shut down due to the low catch in Victoria, and in 1993 the five storey plant was torn down.

The active portions of Victoria Harbour that can accommodate large and mid-sized vessels (Outer, Middle, Inner, and Upper) are spread along 4 km (2.5 mi; 2.2 nmi) of estuary.

In 2007 the seaplane link from Victoria to Vancouver Harbour Water Airport was, according to the Official Airline Guide, Canada's busiest air route by the number of weekly flights.

The Upper Harbour is home to the Sail and Life Training Society and their topsail schooner Pacific Swift.

The Craigflower Bridge,map4 which carries Highway 1A (locally "Admiral's Road") over the Harbour was, in 1997, the site of the murder of Reena Virk.

The Gorge was for many years the primary swimming location for Victoria including a tall diving platform at Curtis Point.

The most noticeable feature of Portage Inlet seen from above is the Craigowan Road peninsula that extends into the water body north of the Shoreline Community School.

[9] BC Hydro and the Federal Government have undertaken a $2 million clean-up of the eastern shore of Rock Bay which was once the site of a coal gasification plant.

[85] Through the coordination and services of the Capital Regional District (CRD) the municipalities of Colwood, Esquimalt, Langford, Oak Bay, Saanich, Victoria, and View Royal discharged an average of 129,000,000 L (105 acre⋅ft) of filtered but untreated sewage into the ocean every day in 2006.

[88] In 2006 Barry Penner, BC Minister of Environment at the time, concluded that wastewater treatment should be taking place in Victoria and surrounding communities.