From industrial highway to developer’s paradise, Montreal’s Lachine Canal marks 200th anniversary

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.