A short history and the creation of a temple for the automobile - Part One

By Doug Scholes

A focused location of transportation networks, both steel rail and asphalt road, on the Island of Montreal has been the oblong-shaped area bordered by the St. Jacques escarpment to the north, rue Notre Dame to the south and the westerly tip of St-Henri to the east - known as the Turcot Yards and the Turcot Interchange.



Just over 100 years ago the Grand Truck Railway established a train yard here, formerly part of lac aux Loutres and the rivière St-Pierre, both long since filled in. Along with the miles of rails that made up the train yard, on the east end (located beneath what is now the Turcot Interchange) there was a round house that held 57 locomotives with a 100 foot long turn-table to reverse the orientation of train engines.