Thousand Islands Thousand Islands-Frontenac Arch region was designated a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2002. The Thousand Islands Bridge connects New York State and Ontario by traversing Wellesley Island at the northernmost point of Interstate 81 in Jefferson County and meets Highway 137, which leads to Highway 401. The waterfront is served by New York State Routes 12 and 37 and by the Thousand Islands Parkway in Ontario. Ontario also has the Waterfront Trail alongside the Parkway for cyclists who wish to see the area in an alternative way. Large freighters frequently ply the Saint Lawrence Seaway, but the area has
Thousand Islands in the mid-1990s with the arrival of zebra mussels, which feed on algae. The water is so clear in some areas that a rocky bottom can be observed in of water. The area has several shipwrecks, and although most of them are over underwater, some are a mere down and can be seen from the surface. Prior to European colonization, the Thousand Islands region was home to, or visited by, members of the Iroquois Confederacy and Ojibwa people. Their name for the islands was "Manitouana" or the "Garden of the Great Spirit". The region was a part of the War