The
Island of Montreal , in extreme southwestern
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, is located at the confluence of the
Saint LawrenceThe Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
and
OttawaThe Ottawa River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. For most of its length, it now defines the border between these two provinces.-Geography:...
Rivers. It is separated from
Île JésusÎle Jésus is an island in southwestern Quebec, separated from the mainland to the north by the Rivière des Mille Îles, and from the Island of Montreal to the south by the Rivière des Prairies....
(
LavalLaval is a Canadian city and a region in southwestern Quebec. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third largest municipality in the province of Quebec, and the 14th largest city in Canada with a population of 368,709 in 2006...
) by the
Rivière des PrairiesThe Rivière des Prairies is a delta channel of the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada....
.
The island is
boomerangA boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced...
-shaped (one end pointing roughly west, the other roughly northeast). It is the largest island in the
Hochelaga ArchipelagoThe Hochelaga Archipelago, also known as the Montreal Islands , is a group of islands at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers in the southwest part of the province of Quebec, Canada.-Size:...
, and the second largest in the
Saint Lawrence RiverThe Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
(following
Anticosti IslandAnticosti Island is an island at the outlet of the Saint Lawrence River into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in Quebec, Canada, between 49° and 50° N., and between 61° 40' and 64° 30' W. At in size, it is the 90th largest island in the world and 20th largest island in Canada...
in the
Gulf of Saint LawrenceThe Gulf of Saint Lawrence , the world's largest estuary, is the outlet of North America's Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean...
). It has the 37th
largest population of any island on earth, and the largest population of any island in the world on fresh water.
The St. Lawrence widens into
Lake Saint-LouisLake Saint-Louis, or in French , is a lake in extreme southwestern Quebec, Canada, adjoining the Island of Montreal at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers.The lake is bounded to the north and east by the Island of Montreal...
south-west of the island, narrows into the
Lachine RapidsThe Lachine Rapids are a series of rapids on the Saint Lawrence River, between the Island of Montreal and the south shore. They are located near the former city of Lachine....
, then widens again into the Bassin de La Prairie before becoming the St. Lawrence again and flowing toward Quebec City.
Saint Helen's IslandSaint Helen's Island is an island in the Saint Lawrence River, in the territory of the city of Montreal. It is situated immediately southeast of the Island of Montreal, in the extreme southwest of Quebec. It forms part of the Hochelaga Archipelago...
and
Île Notre-DameÎle Notre-Dame is an artificial island built in 10 months from 15 million tons of rock excavated for the Montreal Metro in 1965. It was created for Expo 67 to celebrate Canada's centennial. The island is part of the city of Montreal and forms part of the Hochelaga Archipelago...
are in the Saint Lawrence southeast of
downtown MontrealDowntown Montreal is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is nearly enitirely located at the southern most slope of Mount Royal and is approximately bounded by Sherbrooke Street to the north, Papineau Avenue to the east, Guy Street or until Shaughnessy Village to the west,...
.
The Ottawa widens and becomes Lac des Deux-Montagnes north-west of the island. The
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue CanalThe Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Canal is a canal and set of locks linking Lake Saint-Louis and Lake of Two Mountains at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, the very western-most point of Montreal Island, Quebec, Canada...
, between the western tip of the island and
Île PerrotÎle Perrot is an island west of the island of Montreal in the Canadian province of Quebec. Part of the Hochelaga Archipelago, the island lies between Lake Saint-Louis and Lac des Deux-Montagnes....
, connects Lac des Deux-Montagnes and Lake Saint-Louis. Another outlet of Lac des Deux-Montagnes, the
Rivière des PrairiesThe Rivière des Prairies is a delta channel of the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada....
, flows along the north shore of the island and into the St. Lawrence at the northeastern tip of the island.
The island is approximately 50 km long and 16 km wide at its widest point. The area of the census division and administrative region of Île de Montréal, which includes
Île des SœursNuns' Island is an island that forms a part of the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is part of the borough of Verdun.-Geography:The 3.74 km² island is part of the Hochelaga Archipelago in the St. Lawrence River...
,
Île BizardÎle Bizard is an island near the Island of Montreal in the Hochelaga Archipelago region.It was formerly a separate municipality named Ville de L'Île-Bizard, but is now part of the city of Montreal, in the borough of L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève....
, Île Sainte-Hélène,
Île Notre-DameÎle Notre-Dame is an artificial island built in 10 months from 15 million tons of rock excavated for the Montreal Metro in 1965. It was created for Expo 67 to celebrate Canada's centennial. The island is part of the city of Montreal and forms part of the Hochelaga Archipelago...
, Île Dorval, and several other smaller islands, is 499 km². The island of Montreal has a shoreline of 266 km. At its centre are the three peaks of
Mount RoyalMount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...
. The southwest of the island is separated by the
Lachine CanalThe Lachine Canal is a canal passing through the southwestern part of the Island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running 14.5 kilometres from the Old Port of Montreal to Lake Saint-Louis, through the boroughs of Lachine, Lasalle and Sud-Ouest.The canal gets its name from the French word for China...
between
LachineLachine was a city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is now a borough within the city of Montreal.-History:...
and Montreal's
Old PortStretching for over two kilometres along the St-Lawrence River in Old Montreal, the Old Port Of Montreal has been the social, economic and cultural soul of Montreal ever since early French fur traders used it as a trading post in 1611...
; this portion of the island is partially divided further by the Canal de l'Aqueduc, running roughly parallel to the Lachine Canal, beginning in the borough of LaSalle and continuing between the boroughs of
Le Sud-OuestLe Sud-Ouest is a borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Geography:Le Sud-Ouest is an amalgam of several neighbourhoods with highly distinct histories and identities, mainly with working-class and industrial origins, grouped around the Lachine Canal...
and Verdun.
The island of Montreal is the major component of the territory of the city of
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, along with
Île BizardÎle Bizard is an island near the Island of Montreal in the Hochelaga Archipelago region.It was formerly a separate municipality named Ville de L'Île-Bizard, but is now part of the city of Montreal, in the borough of L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève....
, Saint Helen's Island, Île Notre-Dame, Nuns' Island, and some 69 smaller islands. With a population of 1,861,900 inhabitants (25% of the population of
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
), it is
by far the most populous island in Canada. It is also the 6th
most populous island of the
AmericasThe Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
and the 37th most populated island on Earth, outranking
Manhattan IslandManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in New York City but distantly trailing
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
even when limited to the sections of Long Island inside New York City. Montreal and the other municipalities on the island compose the administrative region of
MontréalMontréal is one of the administrative regions of Quebec, Canada.It is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality and a census division , for both of which its geographical code is 66....
.
The
crossings which connect the island to its surroundings are some of the busiest bridges in the country and the world. The
Champlain BridgeThe Champlain Bridge is a steel truss cantilever bridge with approach viaducts constructed of prestressed concrete beams supporting a prestressed concrete deck paved with asphalt...
and the
Jacques Cartier BridgeThe Jacques Cartier Bridge is a steel truss cantilever bridge crossing the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal Island, Montreal, Quebec to the south shore at Longueuil, Quebec, Canada...
together handle 101 million vehicles a year.
Name
The first French name for the island was
"l'ille de Vilmenon", noted by
Samuel de ChamplainSamuel de Champlain , "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608....
in a 1616 map, and derived from the
sieurThe French nobility was the privileged order of France in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern periods.In the political system of the Estates General, the nobility made up the Second Estate...
de Vilmenon, a patron of the founders of Quebec at the court of
Louis XIIILouis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
. However, by 1632 Champlain referred to the
"Isle de Mont-real" in another map. The island derived its name from Mount Royal (
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Mont Royal, then pronounced mɔ̃ʁwɛjal), and gradually spread its name to the town, which had originally been called Ville-Marie.
In the
Mohawk languageMohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...
, the island is called Tiohtià:ke Tsi (a name referring to the
Lachine RapidsThe Lachine Rapids are a series of rapids on the Saint Lawrence River, between the Island of Montreal and the south shore. They are located near the former city of Lachine....
to the island's southwest) or Ka-wé-no-te.
Municipalities
- Baie-d'Urfé
Baie-D'Urfé is a suburb located near to the western tip of the Island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. After the amalgamation of the Island's 27 distinct municipalities, it was merged on January 1, 2002 with neighbouring Beaconsfield to create the borough of Beaconsfield–Baie-D'Urfé, in the new...
- Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield , 2006 Population 19,194) is a municipality on the Island of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. It is located on the north shore of Lake Saint-Louis and is bordered on the west by Baie-D'Urfé, on the north by Kirkland and on the east by Pointe-Claire...
- Côte Saint-Luc
Côte Saint-Luc is a mostly residential city in Quebec, Canada, located on the Island of Montreal. The English version of this toponym is "Saint Luke's Slope".-History:...
- Dollard-des-Ormeaux
- Dorval
- Hampstead
-History:The Town of Hampstead was founded in 1914. It was designed to be an exclusive garden city. There are no retail shops within municipal boundaries. Houses were assigned relatively large lots to allow space for trees and shrubbery. The town's roads were designed with curves in order to slow...
- Kirkland
Kirkland is a town on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. As of 2006, the population was 20,491. It is named after Charles-Aimé Kirkland, a Quebec provincial politician....
- Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
- Montreal Est
Montreal East , is a town in southwestern Quebec, Canada on the island of Montreal, formerly part of the borough of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles–Montréal-Est. Montreal-Est has consistently been the home to many large oil refineries since 1915.Montreal-Est was originally founded in 1910...
- Montreal West
Montreal West is a town in southwestern Quebec, Canada on the Island of Montreal. On January 1, 2002 it, along with its neighboring suburbs of Côte Saint-Luc and Hampstead, was merged into a borough of the City of Montreal to be known as Côte-Saint-Luc—Hampstead—Montréal-Ouest, though 97% of the...
- Mount Royal
Mount Royal is a town located on the northwest side of Mount Royal, north of downtown Montreal, on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The town is completely surrounded by Montreal. The population was 18,933 at the 2006 census...
- Pointe-Claire
- Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is a town located at the western tip of the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is the second oldest community in Montreal's West Island, having been founded as a parish in 1703...
- Senneville
Senneville is a village on the western tip of the Island of Montreal. It is the wealthiest town on the West Island, closely followed by Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Baie D'Urfé...
- Westmount
Westmount is a city on the Island of Montreal, an enclave of the city of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada; pop. 20,494; area 4.02 km²; population density of 5,092.56 inhabitants/km²....
Demographics
| 1876 |
1890 |
1931 |
1941 |
1951 |
1961 |
1971 |
1981 |
1991 |
1996 |
2001 |
2006 |
2009 est. |
| est. 120,000 |
est. 200,000 |
1,003,868 |
1,116,800 |
1,320,232 |
1,747,696 |
1,959,180 |
1,760,122 |
1,775,871 |
1,775,846
|
1,812,723
|
1,854,442 |
1,906,811 |
External links