Des Bassins Place | Lachine Canal National Historic Site

The most striking feature of Bassin Peel is the sudden widening of the Lachine Canal, where the water expands into a basin framed by rusted iron rings and heavy stone retaining walls. This basin once served as the primary parking lot for the grain fleets of the nineteenth century. Barges gathered here to wait for their turn to unload at the nearby milling complexes, turning this stretch of water into a gridlocked maze of wood and steel for weeks at a time.