|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Moncton is a Canadian city located in Westmorland County, New Brunswick.
The city is situated in southeastern New Brunswick, in the Petitcodiac River valley about 55 km (34 mi) from the Nova Scotia border. Moncton lies at the geographic center of the Maritime Provinces. The community has the nickname "Hub City" because of its central location and also because Moncton has historically been the railway and land transportation hub for the Maritime Provinces.
European settlement began in 1733 when Acadian farmers arrived after migrating up the Petitcodiac River from the Bay of Fundy. The region was captured by the English in 1755, and Acadian inhabitants were subsequently deported. The official founding of the community was in 1766, with the arrival of Pennsylvania "Deutsch" settlers sponsored by the Philadelphia Land Company. The settlement was initially agricultural but by the mid 1800s, a wooden shipbuilding industry flourished. The shipbuilding economy collapsed in the 1860s but was quickly replaced by the railway industry when, in 1871, the Intercolonial Railway of Canada chose Moncton to be their headquarters. Moncton would then remain a railroad town for well over a century.
Moncton was first incorporated in 1855 and was named after Lt. Col. Robert Monckton, the British military commander who had captured nearby Fort Beauséjour a century earlier, and who had later been given responsibility for overseeing the Acadian deportation. The collapse of the shipbuilding industry caused the town to lose its civic charter in 1862 but the community was able to survive and to reincorporate in 1875 on the strength of the developing railway industry; as a result, it adopted the motto Resurgo.
Although Moncton was traumatized twice, by the collapse of the shipbuilding industry in the 1860s and by the closure of the CNR locomotive shops in the 1980s, the city's economy was able to rebound strongly on both occasions. At present, the city's economy is stable and diversified. Moncton's economy is based on its transportation, distribution, retailing and commercial heritage, but is also supplemented by strength in the educational, health care, financial and insurance sectors. The strength of the economy has received national recognition and the local unemployment rate is consistently less than the national average.
The Moncton Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is one of the top ten fastest growing metropolitan areas in Canada and is also the fastest growing urban region east of Toronto. The CMA includes the neighbouring city of Dieppe and the town of Riverview, as well as adjacent areas of Westmorland and Albert counties.
Moncton has a CMA population of 126,424, which makes Moncton the most populous metropolitan area in New Brunswick, and also makes it the second largest CMA in the Maritime Provinces, after Halifax.
The municipal coat of arms illustrates Moncton's agricultural, industrial and railway heritages, along with the Petitcodiac River's tidal bore.
|
|
 |
