Saint
John —2008 ISCSC
Saint John is
the largest city in the province of New Brunswick and the oldest incorporated city in Canada. In 2006
the city proper had a population of 68,043 and its Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) population
was 122,389, second after Moncton's (CMA) population of 126,424 (Statistics Canada 2006
Census). The city is situated along the
Saint John River
.
Predated by the Maritime Archaic Indian
civilization, the area of the northwestern coastal regions of the Bay of Fundy
is believed to have been inhabited by the Passamaquoddy Nation several thousand years ago, while the Saint John River valley north of
the bay became the domain of the Maliseet Nation. The mouth of the Saint John River was first
discovered by Europeans in 1604 during a reconnaissance of the
Bay of Fundy
undertaken by French cartographer, Samuel de Champlain. The day when Champlain
sighted the mighty river was Saint John
The Baptist's Day, thus the name for the river, Fleuve St-Jean (
Saint John River
). The strategic location at the mouth of
the
Saint John River
came to be fortified by Charles de la Tour in
1631. After several wars between the French and the British,
Saint John
passed to the British.
Saint John Hilton
The City of
Saint
John
in 1785 was the first incorporated city in British North America (present-day
Canada
).
During the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812,
the city's location made it a probable target of attacks, thus several military
forts were constructed, namely Fort Dufferin and one of Canada's 16 Martello
Towers.
The city had a large immigrant influx and
the government was forced to construct a quarantine station and hospital on Partridge Island at the
mouth of the harbor to handle the new arrivals. These immigrants changed the
character of the city and surrounding region from its Loyalist-Protestant
heritage to the newcomers’ Irish-Catholic tradition.
Saint John
became the province's leading
industrial center during the 19th century, fostering a
shipbuilding trade that lasted until 2002. One local shipyard built the famous
sailing ship, Marco Polo. Due to its location for railways
and servicing the triangle of trade between British North
America, the Caribbean,
and the United Kingdom, the city was poised to be one
of Canada's leading urban centers; however, a disastrous fire in 1877 destroyed
a large portion of the central business district.
During the First World
War, the city became a trans-shipment point for the British
Empire's war effort. During World War II,
the port declined in importance because of the U-boat threat
to Halifax's protected harbor, which had
previously provided convoy marshaling. However, manufacturing expanded
considerably, notably the production of veneer wood for De Havilland Mosquito bomber aircraft.
Bevcause of the U-boat threat, additional batteries were installed around the
harbor.
Saint
John's first airport was
located north of the business district at Millidgeville. It was here in 1932
where Amelia Earhart landed during her solo
trans-Atlantic flight.
Economy
Saint John is the industrial powerhouse of the Maritime provinces of Canada and hosts the
greatest concentration of industry on the Atlantic coast north of
New York City
. Wealthy industrialist K.C. Irving and his family built an
industrial conglomerate in the city during the 20th century with interests in
oil, forestry, shipbuilding, media, and transportation.
Irving
companies remain dominant employers in the region with the most important
businesses being eastern
North America
's first
deepwater oil terminal, a pulp mill, a newsprint mill, and a tissue paper
plant. Until the early 2000s,
Canada
's
largest shipyard had been an important employer in the city.
Other important economic activity in the
city is generated by the Port of St, John, The New Brunswick Power Corporation which operates three electrical generating stations including the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating
Station, Aliant
Telecom which operates out of the former New Brunswick Telephone headquarters,
numerous information technology companies, and the
Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation, operator of New Brunswick's largest
health care facility, Saint John Regional
Hospital. There are also a number of call centers that were established in the 1990s under provincial government incentives.
Prior to the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950s, the
Port of Saint John functioned as the winter port for Montreal,
Quebec when shipping was unable to traverse the sea ice in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Saint Lawrence River. The Canadian Pacific Railway opened a line to
St, John from
Montreal
in 1889 across the state
of Maine and transferred the majority of its trans-Atlantic passenger and cargo shipping
to the port during the winter months. The port fell into decline following the
seaway opening and the start of year-round icebreaker services in the 1960s.
Education
In 1964, the
University
of
New Brunswick
created UNB Saint John. In 1968 UNBSJ opened a new campus in the city's
Tucker
Park
neighborhood. This campus has undergone expansion over the years and is the
fastest growing component of the UNB system with many new buildings constructed
between the 1970s-2000s. UNB offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in more
than 60 disciplines and continuing education in a variety of fields. Its 10,000
students come predominately from
Canada
, but increasingly from all
over the world, 73 countries represented
by UNB's International Students.
The UBB can be
characterized as follows:
- 620 full-time faculty members
- UNB is the oldest English
language university in
Canada
- UNB was the first public
university in
North America
- UNBSJ was the first university
in Canada to introduce an e-business program, its bachelor of business administration in
electronic commerce.
- UNB Fredericton Faculty of Arts
was the first in Canada to create a major in multimedia studies.
- UNB Fredericton's Military and
Strategic Studies Program has been Canada's center of excellence in
military and defense relations history for over 30 years.
- UNB
Renaissance
College
, offering studies in leadership, is the only
program of its in kind in Canada.
- UNB Planetary and Space Science
Centre is the only NASA-supported planetary imaging facility in Canada.
- UNB Canada Rivers Institute is
unique in Canada and one of only a handful of such centers in the world.
- Students at UNB Fredericton are
among the first undergraduate in
North America
to study computer-assisted drug design.
Reversing Falls
The
phenomenon of the
Reversing
Falls
is caused by the tremendous rise and fall of
the tides of the
Bay of Fundy
, which are the
highest in the world. The natural southward-facing opening of the
Bay of Fundy
receives the on rushing ocean tides directly
like a funnel. The tidewater is normal when it enters the bay at its widest
point. But the farther up the bay it travels the more it changes. It is, in
effect, squeezed by the ever-narrowing sides and the constant shallowing of the
bottom forcing the water higher up the shores. The low tide running out of the
bay collides with the new, incoming high tide, combining forces to make a
higher wave coming in. The combination of wave forces is called resonance.
In
Saint John
the height difference from low to high tide is approximately 28
feet (farther up the Bay it can be as much as 52 feet). Reversing Falls in
Saint John
provides one example of the power of these
tides; twice daily the Fundy tide pushes the mighty
Saint
John River
backwards for a few hours
Around
Town
For you photo hungry folks who wanted to see more
of the "Friendliest Little City in the EaSaint
Weather
The climate of
Saint John
is temperate. The
Bay of Fundy
acts as a natural
air conditioner in summer and diverts major snowstorms in winter. The Bay never
freezes. Average summer temperature is 22C (71F); Average winter temperature is
-3.9C (25F).
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