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Fort Lachine, interpreted by S. A. Brodeur. Désiré Girouard, Lake St. Louis Old and New Illustrated and Cavelier de LaSalle. Montréal, Poirier, Bessette & Co, 1893
Musée de Lachine archives, M16-2,3
The end of Fort Lachine
By the 19th century, Fort Lachine was just a distant memory. The opening of the canal (1825), its enlargement (1843) and the construction of a railroad linking Montréal and Lachine (1847) transformed the old Saints-Anges parish. Around the same time, the government introduced a municipal system that differentiated administratively between urban (city, town, village) and rural agglomerations.
From then on, the sprawling municipal parish of Lachine, which stretched from Montréal to Pointe-Claire, was distinct from the village of Lachine centered around the Old Canal. Later, the village became a town and the rural parish was divided into two other self-governing municipalities, Dorval (1892) and LaSalle (1912).