Lachine Canal
The Lachine Canal ( French Canal de Lachine , English Lachine Canal ) is a canal in the Canadian province of Québec . It begins in Lac Saint-Louis near Lachine , crosses the southeastern part of the Île de Montréal and ends after 14.1 km in the old port of Montreal . The canal was built in the 1820s to bypass the Lachine rapids in the Saint Lawrence River . Today it is mainly used for tourism and has been classified as a National Historic Site of Canada since 1929 .
history
In 1689, the French colonial government planned for the first time to build a canal to bypass the dangerous Lachine rapids, as these severely hampered the continuous shipping to the Great Lakes . The project failed, as did several follow-up projects in the following decades. Montreal businessmen, who feared economic disadvantages due to the Erie Canal under construction , founded a consortium in 1821. Construction work was completed four years later. The canal had seven locks and was mainly used to transport goods.
Montreal subsequently developed into an important port and numerous industrial companies settled along the Lachine Canal. The canal soon proved to be too small, so that it had to be expanded between 1843 and 1848. Instead of the previous seven locks, there were now five. A second expansion of the canal followed between 1873 and 1884. Since the St. Lawrence River had also been expanded in other places, ocean-going cargo ships could now operate from the Atlantic to Lake Superior , which is the most important prerequisite for the development of the western one alongside the construction of the railway Provinces was.
The canal could be operated successfully until the 1950s. But then it proved to be too small again in view of the growing transport volume and the larger ships. Due to the limited space, it could not be extended again. After the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, the canal lost its importance and was finally closed in 1970. Eight years later it came into the possession of Parks Canada . As part of an urban renewal project , the Lachine Canal was reopened in 2002 and released for leisure and tourism purposes.
Historical pictures
The canal in 1850 ...
... and in 1920
Opening a lock (1948)
View of a lock (1948)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Lachine Canal National Historic Site of Canada. In: Canadian Register of Historic Places. Accessed September 21, 2017 .
Coordinates: 45 ° 28 ′ 26 " N , 73 ° 34 ′ 46" W.