Island of Montreal
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The Island of Montreal (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.
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 Lac 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. Île Sainte-Hélène and Île 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 Canal, between the western tip of the island and Île-Perrot, connects Lac des Deux-Montagnes and Lac 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.
The island of Montreal is the major component of the territory of the city of Montreal, along with Île-Bizard, Île-Dorval, Île Sainte-Hélène, Île Notre-Dame, Île des Soeurs, and some 69 smaller islands. The island formerly contained 26 municipalities, all of which were merged into the City of Montreal on January 1, 2002. Some 26% of the population of Quebec live on the island.
A number of crossings connect the island to its surroundings. See List of Montreal bridges.
Name
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 Iroquois 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.
es:Isla de Montreal fr:île de Montréal
