Back to Homepage Prince Edward Island Charlottetown Other Centres Cape Breton Sydney The South Shore of Nova Scotia The Interior of Nova Scotia Other Centres of Nova Scotia Eastern New Brunswick Saint John - New Brunswick Moncton The Saint John Valley The Montreal Region St. Hyacinthe Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu The Three Rivers Region Drummondville The Quebec Region Other Towns in the Quebec Region The Eastern Townships - Les Cantons de l'Est Sherbrooke The South Shore of the Estuary The Gaspé Peninsula The Laurentians Western Quebec The Lake St. John and Saguenay Region The North Shore Regions and Cities of Southern Ontario Eastern Ontario Ottawa Kingston South Central Ontario Toronto Oshawa Belleville Highland Ontario The Niagara Region Hamilton St. Catharines Niagara Falls Southwestern Ontario Brantford Guelph London Windsor Western Ontario Regions and Cities of Northern Ontario North Bay Sudbury Sault Ste. Marie The North Shore of Lake Huron The North Huron Islands Northeastern Ontario Thunder Bay Rainy River Patricia Regions and Cities of British Columbia Vancouver New Westminster Victoria Nanaimo The Coastal Region Port Alberni and Alberni The Fraser Uplands Okanagan Valley The Kootenay-Columbia Region Trail The Nechako Region The Peace River Block

The Montreal Region THE geographic pattern of Quebec is dominated by its division into three great physiographic regions: the Laurentian Uplands, the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the Appalachian Highlands. Within the larger framework, the position of rivers, lakes and ridges, the choice of original settlement sites, the economic development of areas and routes, and last, but not necessarily the least influence, is the location of administrative boundaries. Cities often provide a useful regional nucleus, as is the case in several Quebec regions. In other regions, however, there may be no cities and this also makes a good regional characteristic. Surrounding the city of Montreal, the flat lands of the extreme southwestern part of Quebec constitute the Montreal Plain or Montreal Region. Extending from the borders of Ontario and New York to Lake St. Peter and from the edge of the Laurentians to the first slopes of the Appalachians, it has an area of slightly over 4,700 square miles. This territory is fully occupied, being carved into an intricate pattern of urban and rural municipalities inhabited by more than 3,635,000 people. Only 14% of the population is rural. The city of Montreal itself contains 1,854,442, Greater Montreal 1,400,000, and there are six other cities and towns on the plain. Montreal is a modern complex metropolis of more than 1,850,000 people according to the census taken in 2006. Geographical Setting Montreal is located at 73°30' west longitude and 45°30' north latitude, approximately the same latitude as Portland, Oregon; Lyons, France; Milan, Italy, and Odessa. Montreal arose at the head of navigation on the St. Lawrence where further progress inland is blocked by the Lachine Rapids. It is also strategically located with respect to the natural routes radiating north, west and south by way of the Ottawa, the upper St. Lawrence and the Richelieu. The site of the original settlement was a terrace on the left bank of the St. Lawrence, at the foot of the Lachine rapids. Behind it rose Mount Royal, 769 feet in height, dominating the whole countryside. The city has grown up the slopes of the mountain, around it on all sides, clear to the Back River (Rivière-des-Prairies) on the other side of the island. The site has an interesting geological history. The underlying rocks were laid down in the Ordovician period. In the quarry on Fleurimont Street may be seen a 75-foot face revealing the three main formations of the island: Chazy limestone at the bottom, Black River limestone above it and Trenton limestone on top. The strata are still almost horizontal but have been faulted. At the end of Devonian time eruptive rocks broke through to form the volcanic neck which constitutes Mount Royal. Being made of harder rocks it withstood erosion better than the surrounding sedimentary strata and now stands as a monadnock above the plain. All around it the surface land forms are Pleistocene terraces, sloping from the sides of "the mountain" to the water level. The upper terraces are more than 200 feet above sea level. The largest of these (200-225 feet) extends to the north of Mount Royal, through Outremont from the corner of Park and Mount Royal Avenues to the Jean Talon station of the C.P.R. and Côte Visitation. A narrower terrace at the same level is found in the Notre Dame de Grâce section of the city. The fine residential district of Westmount is built on terraces between 200 and 500 feet in elevation. Fairly level streets follow each terrace, but the cross streets between them climb at difficult angles. The middle terrace, between 125 and 200 feet in elevation, is the most extensive underlying a large part of the city. Sherbrooke Street runs along its lower limit from Bleury Street to Pie IX Boulevard and Upper Lachine Road follows it southwestward. Cross streets, such as Bleury, St. Lawrence and St. Denis, mount it by the "Sherbrooke street hill", an old shoreline of the Champlain Sea. The lower terrace, 50 to 75 feet in elevation, is found in the downtown district. Ontario, St. Catherine and Dorchester Streets are built upon it. Near the river a ridge was isolated by the valley of the small creek which ran along Craig street before it was buried under the modern pavements. The old townsite, located on this ridge in order to be safe from spring floods is now the business section about St. James and Notre Dame streets. The city developed from a riverside nucleus overlooking the main part of the harbour. In colonial days it was surrounded by a stockade. From this early site it has grown in three main directions: down the river to Montreal East, up the river and along the Lachine Canal to Lake St. Louis and across the island to Cartierville, Ahuntsic and Montreal North on the Back River. Before the days of rapid transit the city was small and overcrowded. The wealthy who could afford to come to work in private coaches established their residences in Westmount and Outremont on the slopes of the mountain. These remain as independent cities but now completely surrounded by the working class districts of Greater Montreal. Since the building of bridges across the St. Lawrence, suburbs have developed On the south bank, among them being Longueuil, St. Lambert, Montreal South and Greenfield Park. The harbour front and the banks of the Lachine Canal are favoured sites for heavy industries where large amounts of material are imported by ship. The railway belt around the city and its suburbs has also attracted many industries. Lighter industries such as the clothing trades are scattered in hundreds of small factories throughout the city, thus being close to the homes of their employees. Even so, the problem of transportation to and from work has become acute. Street cars and buses are overcrowded and long lines of motor vehicles jam the intersections. The importance of Montreal as a market place is shown by the development of its harbour and by the concentration of other means of transport. This function is older than the manufacturing industry and was one of the chief causes for the development of the city. The harbour setting and equipment are those of a great world port. Lying one thousand miles inland from the Strait of Belle Isle, it is tideless, but closed by freezing from December to April. Wholesalers and manufacturers have stores and warehouses in the harbour area. The nearby streets swarm with motor trucks and heavy horse drawn vehicles. Many types of vessels are to be seen in the harbour: great liners, freighters, the shorter canal and Great Lakes' boats, palatial river cruise boats, schooners, tugs, barges and various small craft. The commercial function of Montreal is national and even world wide. The focused transportation systems bring floods of goods and crowds of travellers. But within the city itself, retail trade must provide for more than a million citizens and hundreds of thousands of transients. There are large stores in specialized shopping districts like those of St. Catherine Street, East and West, where every shop attendant seems to be perfectly bilingual, and there are multitudes of more modest shops in smaller commercial districts throughout the city. There are, moreover, the banks, trust companies, insurance companies and other financial institutions of the downtown business district where, within the last three decades, the first skyscrapers of the city have been erected. Finance is not merely the servant of the local commerce, it is the mainspring of Canadian business. Home