The Lachine Canal, therefore, is to be closely connected with the history of transportation, seeing that it was the initial stage of the journey from Montreal, northward.
The credit of being the pioneer of the first Lachine Canal is to be given to the Sulpician Dollier de Casson who, in 1700, undertook to deepen the Little St. Pierre River and to make it navigable for canoes through Lake St. Pierre between Montreal and Lachine and thence to open a cut from the lake to a point on the St. Lawrence above the worst part of the rapids.
The engineer was Gédéon de Catalogne between whom and Dollier de Casson a notorial contract was made for the excavation of canal twenty-four arpents (about one mile) in length, twelve feet wide at the surface of the ground and of varying width at the bottom, according to the depth of the cutting.
The water flowing through the canal was to be at least eighteen inches deep at the lowest water in the St. Lawrence.
The work was begun in 1700. It was apparently never fully completed, though it is very likely that the imperfect channel could be used by canoes, for Upper Canada, during the period of high water.
About the year 1780 certain short cuttings with locks available for canoes and bateaux were made at few points on the St. Lawrence where the rapids were wholly impassable.
As early as the 1795-6 session of the Provincial Parliament, a bill was introduced for the construction of a canal and a turnpike to Lachine by the Hon. John Richardson.
In 1804 was completed a channel three feet in depth along the shore line of the Lachine Rapids, connecting with short canals at the Cascades, Split Rock, and Coteau du Lac, which were provided with locks eighty-eight feet long and sixteen feet wide, admitting of the passage of “Durham boats.”
In 1805 the first attempt was made to improve the Lachine rapids. The sum of $4,000 was voted to be expended in removing any obstacles to navigation.
It is scarcely necessary to add that the attempt proved futile. It had, however, the advantage of making perfectly plain that the only means of overcoming these rapids was by the construction of the Lachine canal.