Music & Travel

Sounds of Silence

Old Port Montrél
Quebéc, Canada

The Old Port: Cradle of Montréal

The history of Montréal begins with its port.
The Old Port site, which delights today's visitors, is rich with history.

MaisondesEclusiers-canal.jpg - 37353 Bytes

The history of the Lachine Canal is intimately tied to Montréal's economic growth.
Undertaken for a third time in 1821,
the excavation of the Lachine Canal finally ended in the spring of 1825.
In 1830, the Harbour Commission was created to expand and improve the port facilities.
This marked the beginning of a period of development which continued for 20 years.
In 1850, the Harbour Commission began dredging the channel between Montréal and Lac Saint-Pierre.
Once the major obstacles to navigation were overcome,
the Port of Montréal was in a position to accommodate ocean vessels.
The raging rapids that deterred even the boldest explorers
continued for nearly three centuries to seriously curtail the development
of the island of Montréal and the travels of the settlers.
Between 1689 and 1824, three attemps
were made to build a canal to circumvent the rapids.

La Tour de l'Horloge

On October 31, 1919, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, inaugurated the construction of the Clock Tower.
Located at the extremity of the Victoria Pier (re-named the Clock Tower Pier),
this historic monument was completed in 1922.

Built under the jurisdiction of the Montréal Harbour Commission,
the Tower was meant to enhance the aesthetics of the site - improving on the industrial conveyors and grain silos,
which at the time, were deemed quite unattractive.
Equipped with a highly sophisticated lighting system for the time,
the Tower also served as a light house.
Navigators often set their chronometers by its clock, legendary for its accurateness.
Today, the Clock Tower remains an important landmark
to ships navigating along the St-Lawrence River towards the Old Port of Montréal.

Some important dates in the history of the Old Port
In 1611, a fur-trading post was set up in Montréal,
where traders had to stop and transfer their goods because
it was impossible to cross the Lachine Rapids.
With the advent of British rule in 1760, the fur trade continued to grow
entered its golden era and the first port facilities appeared.
Each merchant had his own wooden pier to load and unload his merchandise.
In 1809, the first steamship made the trip between Montréal and Quebec City,
departing from the Molson Wharf,
located west of the Bonsecours chapel.

Montréal

A city of southern Quebec, Canada, on Montreal Island in the St. Lawrence River.
Named after Mount Royal, a hill at its center,
it was founded by the French as Ville Marie de Montréal in 1642
and grew rapidly as a fur-trading center and starting point for western exploration.
The English captured the city in 1760.
Today Montreal is Canada's largest city,
a major port, and a cultural, commercial, and industrial hub.
Population, 980,350+.
Québec

A province of eastern Canada.
It joined the confederacy in 1867.
The region was first explored and claimed for France by Jacques Cartier (1534)
and Samuel de Champlain (1608) and was made a royal colony,
known as New France, by Louis XIV in 1663.
Conflict between the French and British for control
of the territory ended in 1763 when Great Britain was given sovereignty,
but the French influence has remained dominant.
Quebec is the capital and Montreal the largest city.
Population, 6,438,400+.

Updated 06-07-04
© Bill_MT 2000