SAINT LAWRENCE SEAWAY

SAINT LAWRENCE SEAWAY. Stretching 2,342 miles from Lake Superior to the Atlantic, the Saint Lawrence Seaway opens the industrial and agricultural heart of North America to deep-draft ocean vessels. Via the seaway and the great circle route, Detroit is 400 miles closer to Amsterdam than New York is. The entire Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Seaway system comprises 9,500 square miles of navigable waters, linked by three series of locks. A ship entering at Montreal rises to more than 600 feet above sea level at Lake Superior. The waterway accommodates vessels 730 feet long, with a seventy-six-foot beam and a draft of twenty-six feet.

The present seaway, opened to deep-draft navigation in 1959, evolved from the engineering efforts of several centuries. In 1534 the Lachine Rapids above Montreal turned back the ships of Jacques Cartier, but by 1783 a canal that afforded passage to flat-bottomed bateaux by passed the rapids. By 1798 a small canal provided a route around the Sault Sainte Marie, on the Canadian side. In 1829 William Hamilton Merritt completed a chain of forty wooden locks across the Niagara peninsula. By 1861 ships were sailing regularly between the Great Lakes and Europe.

Increasing ship sizes and the rapidly growing economy of the Midwest created pressures for further improvements. Between 1913 and 1932, Canada built the Welland Canal to lift deep-draft ships from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. Strong opposition from sectional interests blocked U.S. participation in proposals to develop the power-generating and navigation potential of the international rapids. The Wiley-Dondero Act of 1954 authorized the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation to construct that part of the seaway in the United States, and construction began under agreement with Canada.

Three initiatives in public policy distinguish the Saint Lawrence Seaway. First, it is international in character, with navigation facilities in both the United States and Canada. Second, entities of two governments, each with authority to negotiate with the other, operate it. Third, tolls assessed on shippers meet its operating expenses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thompson, John Herd, and Stephen J. Randall. Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994.

Willoughby, William R. The Joint Organizations of Canada and the United States. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979.

D. W.Oberlin/a. e.

See alsoCanadian-American Waterways ; Fair Deal ; Waterways, Inland .