Cap-Rouge is located in central Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 on the Saint Lawrence River

Saint Lawrence River

The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...

 within Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

. Originally a town on its own, Cap-Rouge was incorporated within Québec on January 1, 2002 and is now part of the Borough Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge

Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge

Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge is a borough of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It comprises Sillery, most of Sainte-Foy and Cap-Rouge.As of November 1, 2009, Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge is one of the six boroughs of Quebec City.-See also:...

.

History

Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier was a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big...

 attempted to create the first permanent European settlement in North America at the location of present-day Cap-Rouge in 1541. Named Charlesbourg-Royal, the settlement of 400 people did survive its first winter due to harsh weather and attacks from neighbouring Iroquoians

St. Lawrence Iroquoians

The St. Lawrence Iroquoians were a prehistoric First Nations/Native American indigenous people who lived from the 14th century until about 1580 CE along the shores of the St. Lawrence River in present-day Quebec and Ontario, Canada, and New York State, United States. They spoke Laurentian...

 of Stadacona

Stadacona

Stadacona was a 16th century St. Lawrence Iroquoian village near present-day Quebec City.French explorer and navigator Jacques Cartier, travelling and charting the Saint Lawrence River, reached it on 7 September 1535. He returned to Stadacona to spend the winter there with his group of 110 men...

 and other villages and was abandoned in June 1542. In August 2006, Quebec Premier Jean Charest

Jean Charest

John James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....

 and Canadian archaeologists under Yves Chretien announced the discovery of this long-lost settlement. Yves Chretien identified its location from fragments of a decorated c.1540-1550 Italian style ceramic plate and six wood timber samples which were dated to the mid-16th century by a United States laboratory.http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=edd7eac6-f566-4011-87d7-82becfc883a2&k=48975

Re-occupied with the French colonisation effort of the 17th century, the area was used for agricultural activities until the 1960s when residential developments took over and transformed the area into a residential suburb of Québec City.

Attractions

Apart from a long history, the main attraction of Cap-Rouge is a rail-only trestle

Trestle

A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...

 steel bridge named "Tracel" built in 1907-1908. Gustave Eiffel

Gustave Eiffel

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French structural engineer from the École Centrale Paris, an architect, an entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...

, from whom the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...

 takes its name, participated in the project. It was constructed under the authority of the National Transcontinental as part of the Winnipeg-Moncton trunk while the Winnipeg-Prince Rupert section was built by the Grand Trunk Pacific. The steel bridge spans 3,335 feet at an average of 172 feet above ground and is still in use today.

See also

• History of French colonization of the Americas
  French colonization of the Americas
  The French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued in the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America...