bike ride to various candidates for Montreal's "High Line" park

A tour through some of our favorite downtown locations



Van Horne Overpass from St-Laurent is an artifact of outdated car-is-king traffic design. It's time to turn it into an urban park.

New Yorkers are loving their new High Line park. The High Line is a linear park that is built on an old elevated rail line that passes through the downtown city. Key word: elevated.

We are firm believers that being elevated is a superior state of being, and taking a bit of effort to find great views to enjoy our city (or yours) is a very worthy objective.

So, this raises the question "Does Montreal have anything similar to New York's High Line?"

We have some ideas.

1. Van Horne overpass that divides Mile-end from little Italy - views of Mt Royal are excellent. You have easy access up a staircase to the lookout on boul. St-Laurent where it goes under this overpass.
2. Elevated terrace/walkway and sterile park Chateau Champlain/Place du Canada in downtown core.
   
3. Rue Notre Dame east (specifically: east of Berri) is a unique elevated viaduct. A great hidden gem of Montreal and a part of Montreal few people know exists.
   
4. The elevated walkway above (i.e. a 2nd story walkway) & along the Jacques Cartier pier complex in the Vieux Port (look closely, it's there).
5. The amazing but not-yet-built roof-top park on top of the downtown autoroute Ville-Marie expressway. (Note: it's not just the park that hasn't been built yet, but the roof hasn't been built either, since it would cost 100s of millions of $$, but we are optimists...)
   

We often visit these when we do recreational scenic urban bike rides, because sometimes bike riding is about stopping and enjoying unique viewpoints on our great city.





View of downtown from Notre-Dame est viaduc


Place Jacques Cartier from Quay Jacques Cartier elevated walkway


View of private yachts from Quay Jacques Cartier elevated walkway, this boat has it's own helicopter!


The Quay Jacques Cartier elevated walkway was popular with this scandinavian couple, who were also on the lookout for good viewpoints


The walkway from Promenade Vieux Port, plenty of staircases so it's no secret how to reach the second level.


Place du Canada downtown terraced deck


Place du Canada has this excellent garden, one of our favorites in Montreal


Place du Canada's elevated terrace above downtown



The view of Mount Royal from Van Horne Overpass - parc Mont Royal and Outremont summits



Staircase up to Van Horne overpass to secret Mile-End lookout


Notre Dame east viaduct


Railroad-memorial park (first train across Canada went past this station), cirque Eloize home base/ex-Dalhousie railroad station, and the Notre-Dame est viaduc



A rough outline of the route we followed on this exploradventure.