Boulevard Saint-Laurent (Montreal)

Saint Laurent Boulevard

French: boulevard Saint-Laurent
St. Laurent Blvd. in Little Italy.
Former name(s)	Rue Saint-Lambert
Length	11 km (7 mi)
Location	Montreal
South end	De la Commune Street
North end	Sommerville Avenue
Construction
Inauguration	1720

Saint Laurent Boulevard also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in French: boulevard Saint-Laurent) is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north-south through the near-centre of city and is nicknamed The Main which is the abbreviation for "Main Street" and in French La Main.

Beginning at De la Commune Street at the edge of the Saint Lawrence River, it transects the Island of Montreal, passing through the boroughs of Ville-Marie, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, and Ahuntsic-Cartierville to Rue Somerville at the edge of the Rivière des Prairies – a total length of about 11.25 km.

Saint Laurent Boulevard became a boulevard in 1905 and is often referred to as The Main. It serves as the city's physical division of east and west (in Montreal parlance; in reality east is more like north-northeast and west is south-southwest). Street numbers begin at Saint Lawrence and continue outward, with street names being suffixed by Ouest (West) or Est (East), depending on their orientation.

The boulevard traditionally divides Montreal by language, ethnicity, and class. Saint Laurent Boulevard was for generations the symbolic dividing line for the city, with the predominantly English-speaking population to the west, French-speaking population to the east, and immigrant communities in between along the Main and Park Avenue. The Main runs through many of Montreal's ethnic communities, a first stop for immigrant communities for over 100 years — initially Jewish, Chinese and Italian, and later Portuguese, Greek, Arab, Haitian and others.