To properly appreciate the resolutely modern and sober Central Station, inward-looking and surrounded by its fellows, we must go back to its origins and consider its ramifications.

In the very early 20th century, when Canadian Northern built a trans-Canadian railway system to compete with the CP network, it needed a way of reaching the heart of Montreal. All access was blocked to it, however. Then, in 1911, the company surprised everyone with the announcement that it would be digging a five-kilometre tunnel under Mount Royal. It also planned to build a long viaduct in the southwest part of the city, with tracks in a trench extending to the upper town, where they would meet up with the tracks from the tunnel. There the company would build a railway station, along with an enormous office complex.

The tunnel was completed in 1916, but because of financial difficulties the company was able to build only a temporary station; the rest of its plans were shelved. In 1918, the federal government took over Canadian Northern, and in 1923, Grand Trunk. The new railway company it created, Canadian National (CN), decided to pursue and even expand on the project launched by Canadian Northern. It excavated a huge area, but the crash of 1929 put real-estate projects on hold. The viaduct leading to the downtown area was completed, however, as well as a new railway station (1938 to 1943), above the tracks. Cars and trucks were provided with separate access ramps, a distinctly modern touch. Inside, passengers reached the fifteen tracks via escalators from the concourse.

While other railway stations in North America are served by a tunnel or viaduct, Montreal's Central Station is the only one to combine these two methods of access and to be laid out accordingly. The most recent of the great metropolitan railway stations in North America is also the only with a modern spirit. Note, too, that it is still fully operational, serving both regional and national passengers.

Little by little, office buildings rose around Central Station. In 1956, CN agreed to a new overall concept, crowned by a 1200-room hotel, the Queen Elizabeth. Ground was broken in 1957 and the work was completed by the following year. Its architects, themselves CN employees, gave it a very austere style, with the accent on functionality, comfort and interior decoration. It was even air conditioned, a first for a Canadian hotel.

An integral part of this concept was an indoor passageway directly from the hotel to the Central Station concourse—the first piece in what would become Montreal's underground pedestrian network. The other buildings that rose around the hotel, and gradually enclosed the station, as had been planned in 1911, are also austere, even minimalist: the CN headquarters building, the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization, and the multi-storey parking lot serving the complex.

A PAEAN TO MODERNISM

By the late 1950s, Central Station was totally enclosed. Nevertheless, there were still two large gaps to be filled in above the sunken tracks: to the north of Dorchester Boulevard, created in 1944 (today René-Lévesque Boulevard), and on the opposite end, to the south. On the north side, Place Ville-Marie would rise around a new, raised public square. On the south side, Place Bonaventure, built in 1966-1967, would straddle the viaduct. In the latter case, the "public square" would be located inside. A huge cube covered with panels of textured concrete, it houses shopping promenades, huge exhibition halls, showrooms and offices, all topped by a 450-room hotel, and all linked to the underground pedestrian network (Place Ville-Marie, Central Station, the metro...) and sitting atop the tracks (railway traffic was never interrupted during its construction). No better example could be found in North America of functionalist urban architecture inseparable from transportation systems.

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