The former head office building of Canadian National Railway Company, built for its predecessor Grand Trunk Railway, still stands on McGill Street and is now occupied by Quebec government offices.

In 1871, an advertisement for the Albion Hotel in an Ottawa newspaper called McGill Street "the great thoroughfare and commercial centre of the city".

[2] The McCord Museum of Canadian History refers to the street as "an important artery in Montreal.

McGill Street runs from Victoria Square south to rue de la Commune in the Old Port, at the head of the Lachine Canal.

North of Victoria Square, the street transitions to Beaver Hall Hill.