Chambly Canal National Historic Site

Envisioned as early as 1785 but not begun until 1831, the Chambly Canal was originally designed to bypass the impassable rapids of the Richelieu River in order to attract Vermont commerce to the St. Lawrence River, creating a continuous navigation route from Lake Champlain to Montreal. Work was suspended in 1835 after excavation had reached Chambly, but resumed in 1841 with the construction of locks, allowing the official opening of the canal in 1843 according to the plans of engineer William R. Hopkins. Designed along an eleven-kilometre route hugging the riverbank with a parallel eight-kilometre channel, the canal quickly became a major commercial artery: by 1850, wood from the Outaouais Valley was being transported to New York and Pennsylvania coal to Montreal, with commercial navigation peaking between 1909 and 1912 before gradually declining in the face of railway and then road competition. Designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1929 for its role in the national canal network, the canal was restored for recreational purposes by Parks Canada between 1977 and 1980, then again in 1990, marking its definitive transition from commercial infrastructure to tourist attraction. Today, the towpath running alongside the canal's nine locks offers a particularly popular cycling and walking route, passing through abandoned sites, meadows, and wetlands that are home to blue oak and silver maple forests, two rare forest types in Quebec, while in August, the skies above the canal come alive with hot air balloons from the nearby Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu festival.