Lake Champlain level. Lake Champlain is in the Lake Champlain Valley between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of New York, drained northward by the -long Richelieu River into the St. Lawrence River at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, northeast and downstream of Montreal, Quebec. It also receives the waters from the -long Lake George, so its basin collects waters from the northwestern slopes of the Green Mountains and the northernmost eastern peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. Lake Champlain drains nearly half of Vermont, and approximately 250,000 people get their drinking water from the lake. The lake is fed in Vermont by
Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad line. The line was extended south along the Richelieu River valley in 1851 to Rouses Point, New York and the following year saw a more direct routing built from the St. John-Laprairie line to St. Lambert, directly opposite Montreal to avoid the indirect journey up and down the St. Lawrence River from Laprairie. This latter line effectively reduced the line into Laprairie to branch line status and it would be later abandoned. The C&SL merged with the Montreal and New York Railroad in 1857, formerly known as the Montreal and Lachine Railroad, with the new company being named the Montreal