Montreal's Historic 100 Year Old Clock Tower

It's a beautiful day today. We are just in Old Port, Montreal, and this is my type of place. Beautiful area, lots of amazing buildings. The Old Port of Montreal is gorgeous on a Sunday. It's busy, it's poppin'. Even have a pirate park right in the back here. People were zip lining, and the buildings were also very pretty. It's freaking gorgeous. It's great, and I can't wait to take you out on one of those boats. Seriously, I just love this place. I have missed this place. Are you guys loving the fall shots? It's because I have been obsessed over here. Oh, this is so gorgeous. The keys of the Old Port stretch over two kilometers along the St. Lawrence River from the entrance of the historic Lachine Canal to the Clock Tower Basin. All right, off to see the old Clock Tower. Really cool Clock Tower here. It's a delight to be in Old Montreal and see the big Clock Tower. The Clock Tower. When approaching the pier farthest to the east, you will find a giant clock tower that is a Big Ben replica. It was constructed in 1922 in order to commemorate the sailors lost at sea during World War I, which makes this a 100-year-old piece of architecture. The Montreal Clock Tower is an icon and symbol. When the tower was built, Montreal handled more grain exports than any other port in the world and ranked second in North America in terms of total cargo. All the grain was coming out of the west. Montreal was then, of course, the great port where the grain was packed into the ships. Grain is the principal export. Here, the wheat, corn, barley, and flax from the vast prairies of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan are transhipped to ocean-going vessels, carrying Canada's golden bounties to all parts of the world. Towering grain elevators dominate the miles of deep-sea harbor where ships from all nations fly their trade. Trees now grow where the original grain sheds once stood. They used to have sheds here, like these sheds that were used as storage back in the day. Very beautiful architecture. Construction began on October 31st, 1919, when Edward, Prince of Wales, laid the first piece for the foundation. This stone was placed October 31st, 1919 by the Prince of Wales. So the Prince of Wales was here to do this. Here's your monument to the sailors. The tower is made of concrete and built on a square base, with each supporting corner at a different height on the ground. The structure consists of the principal tower, which measures 45 meters in height, and a second smaller tower at 12 meters. Right beneath the clock tower, you will also find the Clock Tower Beach that is fitted with umbrellas and various seating arrangements. They got like a beach on the waterfront, which I feel is pretty cool. Low-key fire. Why not enjoy a nice sunny day on the beach? Another unique thing to do here in Montreal. A hidden artificial beach with great views of the Jacques Cartier Bridge and the Yacht Harbor. Every summer, we have the Montreal Fireworks Festival. So this is the place from where I can get the best view of the show. From May to September, the Clock Tower is open to visitors. And if you're willing to climb the 192 steps to the top, you're sure to get a great view of the St. Lawrence River and the city. You can climb to the top of the Montreal Clock Tower for free. The number 192 on the clock's logo was a warning of the number of steps that had to be climbed to get to the top. Each stair has a number on it. So as we ascend, as we go higher, the stairs become lower and lower. Step 192, 91. So there's 192 steps. Stay tuned. I will check in back at the end and see if you made it to the top. What an adventure. A clock tower adventure. It's really amazing that you're able to climb up here. I'm very thankful for the Old Port for allowing us to have this beautiful part of history open. Here's the company that designed the towers, Gillette and Johnston. And this is a traditional tower of ornamental type towers. And there's different, similar clock towers. The one in Ottawa. There's Big Ben. It is 45 meters high and contains a clock mechanism made in England by Gillette and Johnston as a replica of London's Big Ben. Oh, look it. Here's the clock. Look at that. Ooh, wow. Here's the moment that I've been waiting for. The actual mechanism of the clock tower. Really beautiful, fascinating structure. Look at that. But here's our main mechanism. Look at this. There's our gearbox. That's a fascinating piece of engineering. Wow. And there you can pretty much see where each of the four faces of the clock are attached. And there's your central mechanism. The pendulum that motions the clock mechanism requires constant maintenance as it breaks more than five times a year due to Montreal's extreme temperature variations. We're almost at the top, which is where our observatory is. And there we are. Welcome to the observatory. Here's the view. We made it to the top. Woo! Check out this view. There it is. Beautiful view. And an open concept with the windows here as well. These are open bars. And I'll show you the ceiling. There's the top. What an amazing piece of architecture. Well, the old clock tower was nice. I don't know what it is about me with water, but I had to come back here before we left. I love the waterfront. Something about it just makes me always feel at peace. It's just, I love hanging out at River Johnson. This one's no exception. It doesn't matter if you want to see Montreal in the daylight or at night when everything is glowing, Old Port got you covered. Montreal, Canada is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.