Richelieu River

Richelieu River
Richelieu River at Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu
Location
Country	Canada, and appreciable parts of New York State and Vermont
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Lake Champlain
Mouth
• location	Saint Lawrence River at Sorel
Length	124 km (77 mi)
Basin size	23,720 km2 (9,160 sq mi)
Discharge
• average	330 m3/s (12,000 cu ft/s)

v t e Richelieu River
Legend
St. Lawrence River to the Gulf of St. Lawrence Pont Turcotte Pont Maurice-Martel Île Deschaillons Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu– Saint-Ours ferry Saint-Ours Canal Saint-Ours Lock and Dam Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu– Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu ferry Amyot River Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu– Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu ferry Île de Jeannot Île aux Cerfs Pont Arthur-Branchaud Pont Jordi-Bonet CN St-Hyacinthe Subdivision Acadia River Goyer Island Chambly Basin Rivière des Hurons Chambly Canal Chambly Dam Pont Yule Pont Michel-Chartrand Fryer Dam Sainte-Thérèse Island Rivière des Iroquois Pont Félix-Gabriel-Marchand CP Adirondack Subdivision Pont Gouin Chambly Canal Bernier River Rivière du Sud Île aux Noix Fort Lennox ferry Île Ash Lacolle River Quebec Route 202 CN Swanton Subdivision Lake Champlain Champlain Canal to the Hudson River

The Richelieu River (French: [ʁiʃ(ə)ljø] ^ⓘ) is a river of Quebec, Canada, and a major right-bank tributary of the St. Lawrence River. It rises at Lake Champlain, from which it flows northward through Quebec and empties into the St. Lawrence. It was formerly known by the French as the Iroquois River and the Chambly River, and was named for Cardinal Richelieu, the powerful minister under Louis XIII.^[1]

This river was a long a key route of water transport for trading, first by indigenous peoples, and then for cross-border trade between Canada and the United States. With 19th-century construction of the Champlain Canal (1823) south of Lake Champlain and the Chambly Canal (1843) to the north, the Richelieu provided a direct route from the Saint Lawrence River to New York via Lake Champlain, the canals, and the Hudson River. The construction of rail transport in the mid-19th century competed with such river/canal routes and ultimately succeeded them, because of faster service with greater freight capacity.

Because of the river's strategic position between New France and New England, several military fortifications were erected on its course. It served as a key pathway for several military tours and was the scene of several battles between the end of the 17th and early 19th centuries, first between the French and the Iroquois; then between the French and the English, during the regime of New France; and finally between the British and the rebel Americans after 1760.