Uneasy U.S.-Canada border caused challenges in building of today’s Seaway
July 01, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The story of the St. Lawrence Seaway is one of progress and commerce — but look deeper, and you’ll also find a story that’s as much about war, diplomacy and politics as engineering.
Tony Atherton | Source: The Ottawa Citizen
The U.S. War of Independence made North America’s greatest river an uneasy border between hostile neighbours. The War of 1812 deepened the distrust, giving rise to two canal systems, neither on the St. Lawrence.
The British built a canal from the Ottawa River to Kingston, designed to move troops from Montreal to Lake Ontario without having to use the narrowest part of the St. Lawrence, where they could be vulnerable to attack.
The U.S., meanwhile, built the Erie Canal between Lake Erie and the Hudson River, providing an all-American route from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Its commercial success convinced Canadians to begin lobbying for an all-Canadian shipping route, and the St. Lawrence was the most practical route. Work began on the Cornwall Canal, a system of locks to circumvent the Long Sault Rapids, in 1834. More canals were constructed just upstream and others built closer to Montreal, so that by the middle of the 19th century, small ocean-going vessels could travel all the way up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario.
The canals were rebuilt and enlarged in the late 19th century and, with tensions between Canada and the U.S. much reduced, the St. Lawrence began to take traffic away from the Erie Canal. An international Seaway Commission was appointed to see whether the two countries might co-operate on further development of the river.
This should be a must-read piece for every North American; read it at the Ottawa Citizen >>
