With the opening of the Victoria Bridge in 1860, a year-round transportation route was finally established to the Atlantic Ocean at Portland, Maine. The bridge also provided connections, via the railway, to Upper-Canada and the mid-western United States. The economic, political, social, and cultural effects of these links were felt in Montreal and the surrounding areas. The authors focus primarily on the construction of the bridge, but several essays dealing with the years before during and after the event demonstrate that 1845 to 1875 was an important era in the industrialization of Montreal.