Island of Montreal
The
Island of Montreal (in
French,
île de Montréal), in extreme southwestern
Quebec,
Canada, is located at the confluence of the
Saint Lawrence and
Ottawa Rivers. It is separated from
Île Jésus (
Laval) by the
Rivière des Prairies.
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The island in winter, as seen from space |
The island is boomerang-shaped (one end pointing roughly west, the other roughly north). It is the largest island in the
Hochelaga Archipelago, and in fact in the entire
Saint Lawrence River only
Anticosti Island in the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence is larger.
The St. Lawrence widens into
Lake Saint-Louis south-west of the island, narrows into the
Lachine Rapids, then widens again into the
Bassin de La Prairie before becoming the St. Lawrence again and flowing toward
Quebec City.
Saint Helen's Island and
Ile Notre-Dame are in the Saint Lawrence southeast of downtown
Montreal.
The Ottawa widens and becomes
Lac des Deux-Montagnes north-west of the island. The
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Canal, between the western tip of the island and
Île-Perrot, connects Lac des Deux-Montagnes and Lake Saint-Louis. Another outlet of Lac des Deux-Montagnes, the
Rivière des Prairies, 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. It has 266.6 km of coastline. At its centre are the three peaks of
Mount Royal. The south-west of the island is separated by the
Lachine Canal between
Lachine and Montreal's
Old Port; 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-Ouest and
Verdun.
The island of Montreal is the major component of the territory of the city of
Montreal, along with
Île Bizard,
Île Dorval, 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
Quebec), it is
by far the most populous island in Canada, and the 6th
most populous island of the
Americas. It is ranked the 37th most populated island on Earth, beating out the borough of Manhattan. Montreal and the other municipalities on the island are part of the
administrative region of
Montréal (region).
A number of crossings connect the island to its surroundings, some of the busiest bridges in the country and the world. The
Champlain Bridge and the
Jacques Cartier Bridge together handle 95 million vehicles a year. That's more than all of
Toronto's and
Vancouver's bridges combined. See the
list of bridges in Montreal.
The first French name for the island was "l'ille de Vilmenon," noted by
Samuel de Champlain in a
1616 map, and derived from the sieur de Vilmenon, a patron of the founders of Quebec at the court of
Louis XIII. However, by
1632 Champlain referred to the "Isle de Mont-real" in another map. The island derived its name from Mount Royal, and gradually spread its name to the town, which had originally been called Ville-Marie.
In the
Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià:ke Tsi (a name referring to the
Lachine Rapids to the island's southwest) or Ka-wé-no-te.
