Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Boulevard Saint-Laurent is a very ancient street indeed. By the beginning of the 18th century, the road from the village to the northern shore of the island followed the current street. This street lead to Sault-au-Récollet, Côte Saint-Michel, Côte Sainte-Catherine, as well as Côte Saint-Laurent, and it became known as the Saint-Laurent road.
On an 1825 map, the street is identified as Rue Saint-Lambert below rue Saint-Antoine and as Rue Saint-Laurent and Main Street above it. It is still called "the Main" by anglophone Montrealers, is considered the dividing line between eastern and western Montreal (including for street numbers), and is a very important commercial street in its own right.
In Catholicism, Saint Lawrence is believed to have been the first papal librarian, and to have been martyred in 258 under the emperor Valerian. A legend states that he was executed by being roasted on a gridiron, but it is more likely that he was beheaded. His feast day is August 10, and he is the patron of librarians, cooks, and students. Another St. Lawrence was the second archbishop of Canterbury; he died in 619. As for the Saint Lawrence River, it was known to the Mohawks as Kaniatarowanneneh ("great river"); the French called it rivière du Canada until the 1600s. The first European to navigate it was Jacques Cartier in 1535. Part of the world's largest freshwater system in area of water, it runs 1,900 km through southern Quebec and drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. The Saint Lawrence Seaway, a system of canals allowing ocean-going ships to pass from Montreal to the Great Lakes, was opened on 25 April 1959.
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