Читать книгу Montreal After 250 Years - W. D. Lighthall - Страница 3
ОглавлениеGENERAL DESCRIPTIVE OUTLINES OF THE CITY.
The leading characteristics of the Montreal of to-day are:
Its magnificent situation,
Its historic riches,
Its commercial activity,
The cosmopolitan charm of its division of languages and populations. It is, in this respect, the Alexandria of the West.
Few cities, if any, surpass it in situation. Past it, in front, sweeps the stately River of Rivers, the St. Lawrence, two miles in breadth, bearing down to the Gulf one-third of the fresh waters of the globe; in rear rises Mount Royal, its sides clothed with foliage, its recesses full of beautiful drives and views; and round about the city lies the extensive and fertile Island of Montreal, thirty-two miles long by nine wide, bordered with a succession of lovely bays, hamlets and watering-places. Commercially, the town is, and has always been, the metropolis of Canada. Seated at the head of ocean navigation, its sway as such extends over by far the largest portion of North America. Its connections have a notable influence on the western trade of the United States. It is backed by the great lake and canal system, which connects it with Chicago, Duluth and the cities of the interior of the continent, to which some day, by a short and easy cut, will, no doubt, be added those of the Mississippi. It is the headquarters of, among others, two of the greatest of railways—the Canadian Pacific, which runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, and is the longest in the world, and its rival, the Grand Trunk. Its population, with the adjuncts which properly form part of it, amounts to a little under 300,000 souls, rapidly increasing. Though 620 miles from the sea, Montreal is a great seaport.
Looking around from the top of the towers of Notre Dame, one might say to himself: “This city is the Mother of the cities of the West. Yonder was the birthplace of the founder of New Orleans, the home of La Salle, of Duluth, of La Mothe Cadillac the founder of Detroit, Mackenzie, Fraser, Alexander Henry, and of the famous Scotch fur-kings, who governed the fate of the North-West. There is the greatest River in the world. Crossing it is a bridge that was long the engineering wonder of the world. There are the headquarters of the greatest railway in the world. Here is the strongest Bank on the continent. Nearer still is the wealthiest institution on the continent, the Seminary of St. Sulpice. In this tower is the largest bell on the continent.” And so on.
The city's most pleasing source of interest, however, is its historical spots and associations, for in such there is scarcely a town in America richer, though, as in most active places, the march of progress has removed only too many of the old houses, churches and streets. To what remain, we hope to conduct the reader. Among additional attractions of Montreal is McGill University, while the churches and charitable institutions and the athletic sports of the place are celebrated over the world.
The population at the end of French rule in 1760 was some 3,000; in 1809, about 12,000. To-day it is, as already stated, verging on 300,000. Its shipping trade, founded on the ancient annual barter between the Indian tribes here, amounted in 1840 to 31,266 tons burden, in 1891 to some 2,000,000 tons, nearly equally divided between ocean-going and inland vessels; while the number of its transatlantic steamship lines was 15, and the capital of its 11 banks $43,583,000.
The Harbour.—Prior to 1851 only vessels under 600 tons, and drawing not more than 11 feet of water, could pass up to Montreal; but, by degrees culminating lately, a channel 27½ feet deep has been dredged all the way up, so as to admit of the largest ships reaching the port from the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, the inland canals have been deepened to 14 feet. Immense shipments of grain, lumber and cattle are exported by these means, and general imports return in exchange. Steam navigation was introduced early. In 1807 Fulton launched the first steamboat in America on the Hudson. Two years later, after correspondence with Fulton, an enterprising citizen launched here the first steamboat on the St. Lawrence. A tablet records his act as follows: “To the Honorable John Molson, the Father of Steam Navigation on the St. Lawrence. He launched the steamer 'Accommodation,' for Montreal and Quebec service, 1809.”
At the upper end of the harbour enters the Lachine Canal, begun in 1821, after many delays and misgivings, yet at first but 5 feet deep and 48 wide at the waterline, and 28 at the bottom. Still, it was then wider and deeper than any similar work in England, and was considered a superior piece of masonry work.
VICTORIA BRIDGE, ON GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY.
The Victoria Bridge, crossing just above the harbour, was, when erected, “the greatest work of engineering skill in the world.” The idea was the conception of a man foremost in advancing the trade of the town and its public works, the late Honorable John Young; and the work itself was designed by the celebrated English engineer, Robert Stephenson. It is erected in strong tubular form, resting on heavy stone abutments, calculated to stand the ice-crushes of spring, and was inaugurated publicly by the Prince of Wales in 1860. It “consists,” says the inscription on a medal struck at the time, “of 23 spans 242 feet each, and one in centre 330 feet, with a long abutment on each bank of the River. The tubes are iron, 22 feet high, 16 feet wide, and weigh 6,000 tons, supported on 24 piers containing 250,000 tons of stone measuring 3,000,000 cubit feet. Extreme length, 2 miles; cost, $7,000,000.” These figures and its massive construction show it to be many times more expensive and solid than present-day science would consider necessary for the purpose, and may be contrasted with the light cantilever bridge of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Lachine.[2] It was built for the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, of which it remains the property. Victoria Bridge is, in many respects, a study in itself, the nice allowance for expansion and contraction by temperature, the tons of paint applied to it, the half-ton of annual rust scraped off, and many other details, are food for curiosity and thought. All the iron came out from England, each piece marked for its place, the stone mostly from Pointe Claire. In an enclosure near the entrance to the bridge an immense boulder attracts curiosity. It bears an inscription stating that it was erected as a monument by the workmen engaged in building the bridge to the memory of 6,000 immigrants who died in one year of ship fever. The boulder was taken out of the bed of the River.
As the eye ranges about the harbour, it is caught by the long range of solid stone buildings which form the front of the city, by the great grain elevators grouped at each end of the view, by the domes, towers and spires of the Bonsecours Market, Bonsecours Church, Notre Dame, the Custom House, and the Harbor Commissioners' Building, and the serried masts and the smokestacks of many iron steamships crowding the wharves. The landscape is one also full of history and tragedy.
Many a prehistoric savage fight must have taken place in the neighborhood: many a canoe of painted warriors have crept stealthily along the shores. On the shores round about, many a party of the settlers was murdered by the Iroquois in the earliest days of the colony. Two lost their lives in the same manner on St. Helen's Island just opposite; and on Moffatt's, or Isle-à-la-Pierre, Father Guillaume Vignal was slain by an Iroquois ambush during a fierce battle on the opening of a quarry in 1659. On the Longueuil bank opposite might, during the 18th century, have been descried the towers, walls and chapel spire of the finest feudal castle in New France. At St. Lambert there was a palisaded fort. Laprairie, far over to the south, across the water, was the scene, in 1691, of the celebrated and desperate battle of Laprairie, the first land attack by British colonists upon Canada. To the port came Indian traders for a generation before the founding of the city. Thither in succeeding days came down the processions of huge canoes of gaily-singing voyageurs, returning from a year's adventurous trading in the pathless regions of the West to the annual two months' fair at Montreal.
To speak of the Harbour is to speak of the River, which recalls a remark made in an antiquated description of Montreal. “A striking feature in this majestic stream,” says Hochelaga Depicta, “independently of its magnitude, has always been the theme of just admiration. The Ottawa joins the St. Lawrence above, and thenceforward they unite their streams. But though they flow in company, each preserves its independence as low down as Three Rivers, ninety miles below Montreal..... From any elevated part of the shore the spectator may discern the beautiful green tinge of the St. Lawrence on the farther side, and the purplish brown of the Ottawa on the half of the River nearest to him.”
The city proper occupies only about 7,000 acres in area, being densely populated by reason of the climate. It is colloquially divided into “Uptown” and “Downtown,” separated by an indefinite line about Dorchester Street. “East-end” and “West-end” are also terms frequently used, and the line is about Bleury Street. A convenient landmark is the intersection of the city by two principal business streets—St. Catherine, running across it from east to west, and St. Lawrence, from north to south.
The population is divided into three chief race divisions, coinciding also with religious lines: “English,” inhabiting mainly the West-end, numbering about 60,000, and comprising a population much more decidedly Scottish than English in extraction; French, in number about 150,000, inhabiting principally the East-end, but also considerable portions of the lower levels of the West-end, as well as the adjoining cities of Ste. Cunegonde and St. Henri de Montreal; and “Irish,” that is, Irish Roman Catholic, inhabiting the region known as “Griffintown,” west of McGill Street, and numbering about 40,000.
The principal residential quarter is the “West-end,” especially around and above Sherbrooke Street, which is the finest residence thoroughfare, though perhaps soon to be outdone by Pine and Cedar Avenues, on Mount Royal.
Architecturally, the city presents a solid appearance resembling that of the commercial British cities, the prevailing material being an admirable grey limestone, obtained from quarries in the neighborhood, relieved occasionally by stones of richer color, and for the cheaper buildings by a plain red brick.
The value of real estate in the town is approximately $150,000,000. The total annual revenue is $2,225,000, and is levied chiefly by an assessment of 1 per cent. on realty for civic purposes, 1-5 of 1 per cent. for schools, water rates, and business duty of 7½ per cent. on the rentals. Religious and benevolent institutions are exempt from taxation. The civic debt is over $16,000,000, and is limited to 15 per cent. of the assessed value of the real estate, a limit nearly reached. The debt is very largely represented, however, by valuable assets, such as Parks, City Hall, Fire Stations and Waterworks.
Having thus outlined the Montreal of to-day, a word remains about the Montreal of the future. No one can doubt that Nature intends a great city here. The head of ocean navigation on so matchless a waterway as the St. Lawrence—a seaport six hundred miles inland—with behind it the whole “north coast” of the United States, and such teeming cities as Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Toledo and Duluth, as well as the commerce of Canada, her growth must be great, steady and certain. History has always said so in the constant importance and steady advance of this point. The hopefulness, the pride of the Montrealer can only find full expression in verse:
CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY BRIDGE.
Reign on, majestic Ville-Marie!
Spread wide thy ample robes of state;
The heralds cry that thou art great,
And proud are thy young sons of thee.
Mistress of half a continent,
Thou risest from thy girlhood's rest;
We see thee conscious heave thy breast
And feel thy rank and thy descent.
Sprung of the saint and chevalier,
And with the Scarlet Tunic wed!
Mount Royal's crown upon thy head,
And past thy footstool, broad and clear,
St. Lawrence sweeping to the sea:
Reign on, majestic Ville-Marie!
