History and culture

The Lachine Canal is much more than just a route bypassing the rapids of the same name. The Lachine Canal's history stretches over more than 150 years and takes several directions. It comes within the scope of the interdependence between shipping, industrialization and urbanization, which marked Montréal's development.

• The course of history
• The first link in the canal network
• The wheat and flour industry at the Lachine Canal
• The Peel Basin
• The impact of women on economic development
• A supplier of hydraulic power
• The cradle of industrialization
• Hometown Heroes
• An illustrated book

Lachine Canal is a part of the Montreal landscape. Discover Lachine Canal landmarks.

• The LaSalle Coke crane: a remnant of Montreal's industrialization

Most of Canada's canals consist of a series of locks allowing boats to overcome obstacles such as dams, rapids, sandbars and rocky riverbeds. Canals and locks construction, as well as the maintenance of these, requires great engineering knowledge. 

• How locks work
• Canal reopening
• Why lower the canal water?
• The Hall and Wellington Footbridges: True Masterpieces of Innovation

The Lachine Canal was an important source in hydraulic energy and was instrumental in the industrial and commercial development of the City of Montreal and Canada. By that very fact, it constituted an industrial corridor that was one of the main birthplaces of the manufacturing industry in Canada.

Whether on the landscape of the Canal, on or under its banks, a number of elements still testify to the rich industrial, energy and manufacturing past of the Lachine Canal national historic site.

• Remains of the Consumers Cordage rope factory