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Jacques Cartier Bridge Building

My award for the most underlooked gem in Montreal goes to the Jacques Cartier Bridge Building. Built around 1930, it looks like an art deco take on a Moroccan kasbah. The windows are laid out under arches, in straight lines of narrow arrow slits, and some in diagonals. There are even traditional rub el hizb, or Islamic eight-pointed stars, around the circular window at the top of the four corner towers. All of this is enlivened by the fact that building supports the bridge itself and twisting flyovers jut out from all sides, creating some dramatic panoramas at its base.

Bridge Building

What is it used for? The Middle Eastern appearance conjures up images of desert sands, and this building just happens to serve as a sand warehouse at the moment. Although this present use seems unfitting for such a monumental structure, it apparently has an interesting past as a Japanese and Italian internment facility during WWII.

Why do I claim this building is underlooked? Despite its considerable size and architectural merit, there is no mention of it on the Parc Jean Drapeau website or even the Jacques Cartier Bridge history page. There’s little about it in print as well. The structure is looking a little worn around the edges these days, with lots of broken windows. Here’s a building that could be spruced up and serve as much more than a sand warehouse but, like many areas on Ile Sainte-Hélène, it feels abandoned and uncared for.

Jacques Cartier Bridge Building(From Urbanphoto.)

1 Comment

Hey Patrick,
I really liked your close-up piece on the Jacques Cartier Bridge Building. I've seen it from a distance for many years but never up close. Even from afar, though, it always seemed exotic and magical. Its current role as a receptacle for sand does seem poetic in a way. Wouldn't it be wonderful, though, if it could be fixed up so people could actually go there and hang out?

Posted by Donald McGrath on September 7, 2010

Tenth Anniversary: Spring

ISSUE 43 Tenth Anniversary: Spring 2012

online content:

also in this issue:

  • Face the Music

    by Tim Falconer How can someone who passionately loves music also be a terrible singer? Tim Falconer takes up voice lessons—and discovers the surprising science of tone deafness.

  • The Big Job

    by Deni Y. Béchard As a teenager, Deni Y. Béchard went to Vancouver to live with his father, an ex-con with a penchant for telling tall tales. He met a man desperate to forget the past.

  • The Homesickness of Astronauts

    by Johanna Skibsrud "She felt a great sadness. She would remember next to nothing of this, even soon."
  • [see full issue contents]