Montreal’s Lachine Canal turns 200 [Video]

It used to be that on New Year’s Eve, people living along Montreal’s Lachine Canal would throw open their doors to hear the nearby factories blow their horns when the clocks struck midnight.

That’s one of the stories historian Steven High has heard over and over again from people who lived in the working-class neighbourhoods that bordered the canal. Most of those factories are gone now, and today’s canal, lined by bike paths and loft condos, would be largely unrecognizable to a time traveller from the 1940s.

There are certain landmarks that remain, familiar to many Montrealers — the neon-red Farine Five Roses sign near the Old Port, for example, or the decaying Canada Malting silos further west. But the Lachine Canal, which marks its 200th anniversary this year, is ever-changing. Over two centuries, it has been transformed from an industrial thoroughfare to a neglected backwater to a prime example …