Yesterday to today

The Honoré-Mercier Bridge crosses the St. Lawrence River and Seaway, and connects the borough of LaSalle on the Island of Montreal with the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake on the South Shore. Named in memory of the Honourable Honoré Mercier, former Premier of Quebec, the bridge was opened on June 22, 1934, the fourth bridge to connect the island of Montreal to the South Shore, after the Lachine Bridge (1885), the Victoria Bridge (in 1860) and the Jacques-Cartier Bridge (1930). The Honoré-Mercier Bridge reduced the distance from Montreal to New York State by several kilometres.

Today, some 79,000 users use the bridge daily for a total of 28 million estimated vehicles per year.

Start of construction

Construction of the bridge began in November 1932 and ended in early summer of 1934. Built by the Dominion Bridge Company Limited as part of work funded by the government to counter the financial crisis of the 1930s, this bridge is the work of eleven French-Canadian engineers, all graduates of the École Polytechnique de Montréal.

Raising and dividing the bridge

In 1958-1959, the administration of the St. Lawrence Seaway began raising the deck that overlooked the Seaway, which was under construction, to allow vessels to use this passage. That’s why the elevated portion of the bridge, which represents about half its length, is now under federal jurisdiction.

In August 1963, the ministère des Travaux publics du Québec built a second bridge downstream from the first to meet the ever growing needs of traffic.