H.R.H. the Governor General in replying to the Commissioners’ address well said that “by the arrival and installation of this great floating dock, the great reproach against the St. Lawrence trade route has been removed, and the largest vessels can now run up to Montreal, secure in the consciousness of entering a port which is in possession of a competent modern equipment for repair and examination.”
The dock is capable[2] of accommodating vessels of Olympic size or larger and necessitates the employment of a staff of 500 men, the majority of them skilled workmen. The dock can accommodate thirty vessels at present operating on the St. Lawrence route which are too wide of beam to be taken into any existing dock between here and Halifax, 1,000 miles away.
A ship building plant which is to be operated in connection with the dock is to give employment to about two thousand men.
The type of Port of Montreal is a combination of a protected tidal basin, riverside quays and pier jetties.
There is no rise and fall of tide, but the river level fluctuates to an extent of about 12 feet from high water in the spring to low water in the autumn.
During the winter, due to ice shoves, the water occasionally rises to an extreme of 28 feet above the low water level. An artificial embarkment, parallel to the shore, about one and one-third miles long, protects the whole of the upper part of the harbour, including the entrance to the Lachine Canal, from not only the currents of the river but from ice shoves. This constitutes the protected tidal basin in which the water rises and falls with the river level.
It has not been necessary to purchase any land above the high water mark on the beach, as all piers and wharves have been made artificially by building out into the shallow water and the berths formed by dredging.
From the entrance to the protected basin for about two and one-half miles downstream, to Hochelaga, the river channel is too much contracted to permit of the construction of piers or jetties, and this part of the harbour is developed as riverside quays, sufficient width for harbour purposes being obtained by building the quay-walls in deep water and filling in the area behind to give a width from 100 to 250 feet. Below Hochelaga, where the river section is larger, piers have been built out into the river, inclined so as to give an easy angle of approach from the ship channel.
The success of the port is due primarily to its early development, before any of the water front had been alienated from the crown, and to its geographical, physical and trade situation.
No rights or franchises stand in the way of further extensions, and the sentiment of the country is in favour of a continuance of the policy of retaining the whole harbour area in the public interests.