The Black Rock
When the bridge was being built, workmen discovered the human remains of Irish immigrants to Canada, who had fled the famine in Ireland, only to die during the typhus epidemic of 1847 in fever sheds at nearby Windmill Point. At the bridge approach, a large rock was erected, officially called the Irish Commemorative Stone but locally known as The Black Rock.
Its inscription reads:
| “ | To preserve from desecration the remains of 6000 immigrants who died of ship fever A.D.1847-8 this stone is erected by the workmen of Messrs. Peto, Brassey and Betts employed in the construction of the Victoria Bridge A.D.1859. | ” |
Read more about this topic: Victoria Bridge (Montreal)
Famous quotes containing the words black and/or rock:
“There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)
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