Located at the westernmost point of Lake Ontario, Hamilton is the main center of the Canadian steel industry. It owes its importance to its harbor, which lies on the shipping route from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic via the St Lawrence. Industries include engineering, instrument-making and chemicals. Hamilton has a technical university (with
the first Canadian atomic-research reactor) and is the seat of a Catholic and an Anglican bishop. Its pleasant climate also makes it famous for its apricots.
Hamilton is known to have been settled since the 1660s, but the city's foundation was actually in 1812. The modernization of navigation and the completion of the Welland canal meant that Hamilton became much more important, as raw materials from around the Great Lakes could be processed here at low cost. This was particularly true of iron and steel, which became a major industry very early on.
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