The Wellington Street Tunnel was constructed in the early 1930s as an alternative to the CN Wellington Swing Bridge just a little ways down. Meant primarily as a connector between both sides of the canal, the tunnel fulfilled the important function of getting goods, merchandise, and supplies to the city from the port, it also helped to interconnect Montreal and its surrounding and developing residential (like Verdun) and industrial areas (like Cote-St. Paul). Here are a couple of shots I grabbed from some
heritage site online.
As you can see this was quite the undertaking back then. The tunnel had a pedestrian walkway on one side and was the main thoroughfare of street cars and other vehicles at the time. Abandoned in 1994 for security and safety reasons, the tunnel system remains locked up and now covered in graffiti, a silent reminder of a time passed.
I've only been frequenting this area for a little while now, but it's definitely one of the more interesting for me as I have only had the opportunity to enter into the tunnel a few times, and when I have I have not gone in that far because of a lack of equipment or by the time I get there my camera is dead from a day long flick mission. I tried making a couple of specific mission plans for this spot but it seems it's always locked up or re-barred whenever I do. Although, a couple of times over the last few months I've gotten in thanks to some folks who either a) left the main gate open, or b) somehow parted the bars on the side so I could slip in. But didn't have a good flash light on me and my camera flash can only take me so far. I even went in with an external flash, but again, that can only take you so far.
In my research of this area I've come across some interesting stuff. Back in October 2009 there was some sort of
art show that took place complete with rows of candles for internal lighting and small groups of guitar and bongo playing hipsters.
Urban Exploration Montreal went in a couple of times over the past decade but they never really went the extra distance to show off some good shots of the interior and graff that's in there. Other interested parties have also used the tunnels for photo shoots such as suicide girls (a very interesting shoot indeed) and other artists and photographers.
These are my shots over the last few months all bundles into one update. There isn't a whole hell of a lot of pics like most of my other posts, namely cause this spot hasn't changed a whole lately. So the shots above are just quick updates from outside the tunnel. I guess this post is more of the shots I got from inside the tunnel.
In any case, I plan to go back at some point to map this spot out entirely so keep posted for those shots hopefully in the near future.More from October through December coming soon.
