Lachine Canal

The Lachine Canal is Montreal's most successful urban transformation — a 14.5-kilometre waterway built in 1825 to bypass the Lachine Rapids that closed to commercial shipping in 1970 and has been reborn as a linear park, cycling path, and the catalyst for the conversion of the Southwest's industrial warehouses into the loft apartments, restaurants, and galleries that have made this area one of Montreal's most dynamic neighbourhoods.

The cycling path along the canal is the best bike ride in Montreal — flat, scenic, and long enough to feel like a proper excursion. Starting from the Old Port, the path follows the canal through the Saint-Henri and Verdun neighbourhoods to the town of Lachine on Lac Saint-Louis, passing converted warehouses, urban gardens, and the Atwater Market at the midpoint. Bike rental stations (BIXI, Montreal's bike-share system) are located at regular intervals, making it easy to ride one direction and take the metro back.

The canal itself reopened to recreational boating in 2002, and kayakers, canoeists, and small boats now navigate the same locks that 19th-century cargo ships used to move grain and manufactured goods between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic. The five locks along the canal, operated by Parks Canada, are fascinating to watch — the gates open, the water level changes, and the boats rise or fall exactly as they did when the canal was the most important commercial waterway in British North America.