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Before electric refrigerators, people used blocks of ice to keep their food cool from spring to fall. The ice was cut during winter and stored under straw to be sold later to local residents. Québec City’s ice cutters harvest blocks of ice from the St. Lawrence River.
1823 - 1836

A destiny bound by ice!

Before the Québec Bridge opened in 1917, residents had two ways of crossing the river. In summer, they could take a boat across. In winter, however, they crossed on the ice bridge that formed when the river froze over. It was then that the crossing—by horse-drawn sleigh—was the quickest and easiest, and that the residents of Québec City and Lévis, on the opposite bank of the St. Lawrence River, spent the most time together. Rediscover this bygone era!

Ice cutters on the St. Lawrence

Philip John Bainbridge Before electric refrigerators, people used blocks of ice to keep their food cool from spring to fall. The ice was cut during winter and stored under straw to be sold later to local residents. Québec City’s ice cutters harvest blocks of ice from the St. Lawrence River.
Chronoscope What do you see in the background? (unilingual French for a limited time) Source: Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec Document in the public domain (free of copyright) - Date: 1830