Lachine Canal

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Lachine Canal" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Lachine Canal
The canal's path through Montreal's boroughs
Specifications
Locks	5 (originally 7[1])
Maximum height above sea level	65 ft (20 m)
Navigation authority	Parks Canada
History
Original owner	Company of the Proprietors of the Lachine Canal
Principal engineer	Thomas Burnett
Construction began	July 17, 1821
Date of first use	1825
Date completed	August 24, 1824
Date extended	1843–1848, 1873–1885
Date closed	1970
Date restored	2002
Geography
Start point	Old Port of Montreal
End point	Lachine Lock

The Lachine Canal (French: Canal de Lachine) is a canal passing through the southwestern part of the Island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running 14.5 kilometres (9 miles) from the Old Port of Montreal to Lake Saint-Louis, through the boroughs of Lachine, Lasalle and Sud-Ouest.

Before the canal construction there was a lake, Lac St-Pierre or Lac à la Loutre (Montréal) [fr] or Petit Lac St-Pierre.^[2] The lake and its rivers can be seen on the maps of Montreal of the years 1700, 1744^[3] and on the map titled "The isles of Montreal. As they have been surveyed by the French engineers" (1761).^[4] The lake is now filled in and located near the Turcot Interchange on Autoroute 20.

The canal gets its name from the French word for China (la Chine). The European explorers sought to find a route from New France to the Western Sea, and from there to China^[5] and hence auspiciously the region where the canal was built was named Lachine.

Due to the continuous disposal of industrial waste, the canal contains harmful substances,^[6] though the water quality is said to be good.^[7]