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National Geographic : 1967 May
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Montreal Greets the World York City. Ocean-going vessels-3,855 last year-berth in its 35-foot-deep channel, pour ing South African grapes, Australian lamb, and a host of other cargoes into the transpor tation network radiating from the city. Sail ing away, these ships carry Canadian products to the world, including grain from five mam moth elevators, which can store the harvest of a million acres of land. But shipping isn't the kingpin of Montreal's economy. Downstream, at the island city's northeast end, reek the refineries and storage tanks of the number-one industry, petroleum. Oil from far-off Arabia and Venezuela reaches this refinery center of Canada via tanker and pipeline-including one snaking from Port land, Maine. Plants making products from petroleum chemicals sprout at Varennes and other nearby satellite communities. Montreal's garment business, although second to the petroleum industry in product value, ranks first in giving jobs to Montrealers. With knowledgeable Al Wise guiding me, I drove through the loft district crowded with clothing manufacturers-those who haven't moved to more modern plants in the suburbs -and scouted the mill area of red-brick build ings along the Lachine Canal. That waterway skidded into eclipse with the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The canal was dug to skirt the Lachine Rapids blocking river traffic; in a bit of irony early explorers named them La Chine-China because here ended their search for a west ward passage to the siren Orient. Part of the canal is being filled in, though barges still ply the rest to serve textile, tobacco, and metal working plants stringing its banks. 617
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