Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_John,_NB,_Reversing_Falls,_automobile_and_train_bridges3.jpg
Author: DDD DDD


Saint John is the biggest city in New Brunswick, Canada. It is also the first incorporated city in Canada. Saint John covers 31.31 sq km (12.09 sq mi) and has a population of 70,000 people (2012 estimate).

Until the arrival of Europeans, the Saint John area was inhabited by two different groups of indigenous people, the Passamaquoddy Nation in the northwestern coastal regions of the Bay of Fundy and the Maliseet Nation in the Saint John River valley north of the bay.

French cartographer Samuel de Champlain arrived here in 1604. He saw the river on the feast day of St John the Baptist, and proceeded to name it Fleuvre Saint-Jean, or Saint John River. In 1631 the local governor Charles de la Tour built forts on either banks of the river mouth, Fort Sainte-Marie to the east side and Fort Saint-Jean to the west.

Rule over the region moved from the French to the British beginning with the Conquest of Acadia in 1710, when ejected the French-speaking Acadians from peninsula Nova Scotia, forcing them to take refuge at Saint John River. Then the St John River Campaign of 1758 forced them off their refuge on the Saint John River.

City Market, Saint John
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_John,_New_Brunswick_City_Market.jpg
Author: DDD DDD


During the American Revolutionary War, the Saint John area received an influx of Loyalist. They settled at Parrtown, on the east side of the river and Carleton on the west side. These two towns were merged by a royal charter in 1785, to form the City of Saint John, the first incorporated city in British North America, precursor to present-day Canada.

The population of Saint John was predominantly Loyalist-Protestant until 1840, when the Irish potato famine brought an influx of Irish farmers to the area, introducing Irish-Catholic culture to Saint John. Today Saint John is an industrial city. Among the industries dominant here include oil, forestry, shipbuilding, media and transportation.

Visiting Saint John

You can drive to Saint John from the United States border. Take the US Interstate Highway 1 to Calais, Maine, then continue to Saint Stephen in New Brunswick. Take the New Brunswick Route 1 until you reach Saint John.

Saint John Airport (YSJ) receives flights from Fredericton, Halifax, Montreal and Toronto.

Places of Interest in Saint John

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

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