Across the road from La papeterie Saint-Armand is Lachine Canal National Historic Site which is filled with helpful signage about the industrial past of the area. Here’s a photo of one of the sign-boards with its subject, the water tower behind the former Congoleum plant — juxtaposed to the right. Saint-Armand’s shop is in the basement of the building just out of view in the modern photo on the left.

Parks Canada has a fascinating map of the historic North American north-east canal system; I learned, for example, that the Trent-Severn canal is a shortcut from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay (something that, having lived 5 metres from the banks of the canal when I was in resident at Trent University, I should have known!).