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:
“Media mystifications should not obfuscate a simple, perceivable fact; Black teenage girls do not create poverty by having babies. Quite the contrary, they have babies at such a young age precisely because they are poorbecause they do not have the opportunity to acquire an education, because meaningful, well-paying jobs and creative forms of recreation are not accessible to them ... because safe, effective forms of contraception are not available to them.”
—Angela Davis (b. 1944)
“Under that rock that holds
the first swift kiss
of the spring-suns white, incandescent breath,
Id seek
you flowers.”
—Hilda Doolittle (18861961)