24 Canada's Ship has Come In 1890

It seemed like a good idea. Make a way for ships to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes in Canada. Both the Americans and the Canadians thought so. In 1890 they started talking about building something together that would let the largest ships travel along this waterway.

The official opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway was on June 25, 1959. Children got balloons. There were speeches. The Canadian military shot their guns into the air. Many people came to watch the Queen of England, in her ship Britannia, travel through the new St. Lawrence Seaway. Queen Elizabeth said “We can say in truth that this occasion deserves a place in history.” Elizabeth was right. The 306 kilometre-long St. Lawrence Seaway is still the most difficult engineering work that has ever been completed.

When the French first came to Canada they were looking for a way to get from France to China by ship. They thought the St. Lawrence River was that route. Near Montreal there was fast running water called rapids that stopped them. The French wanted to find a way to travel past these rapids in their big boats. In 1783, they started to build a canal. This canal was a water road that the French wanted to use to pass by the Lachine Rapids in their ships.

Soon, the French saw that they would have to build locks also. These locks were like gates that could hold water inside the canal or let water out of the canal. A ship would sail into a lock. The gates would open and the water would leave the lock. The ship would go down. That way, the ship travelling along the canal, could easily and safely get past the fast moving and fast dropping water of the rapids or waterfalls. When it was time to go home, these locks would close and water would run into them. The ships would float up again.

In 1833, the Welland Canal opened. It was 43 kilometres long that year and had 40 locks.Now,ships could get past Niagara Falls(see 1911)to bring things to sell.They could buy things in Canada and the USA and carry them home on their ships. The city of Toronto began to grow because it was near the Welland Canal. For many years the Welland Canal helped ships travel across the Atlantic Ocean and as far into Canada as the west part of Lake Erie.

More and more ships started to come to this part of the world to trade. They carried many things and the ships got larger and larger. It was time to build again. The Canadians wanted to make a bigger canal. They wanted the Americans to help. The Americans did not want to spend the money. Canadians said they would build the St. Lawrence Seaway all on Canadian land. They said they would not let the Americans use it. The Americans were worried they would lose business so they finally agreed to help.

The new canal would have seven new locks. It would have a deeper waterway. Canada had one more great idea. Canadians thought they would add a hydro dam to make electricity. This dam was to be placed between Canada and the USA so both countries could get electricity from the water.

There were many problems of course. One of the biggest was what to do with the 6,500 people living near the dam. The water would rise so high that these people's homes would be under the water. Canada made a new town called Long Sault and moved all the families there. It was about 15 kilometres farther west from their old homes, but still near the water.

THE ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY MAKES IT EASY FOR LARGE SHIPS TO GET TO MONTREAL

The St. Lawrence Seaway was a wonder of engineering. It took 22,000 workers four years and nine months to complete. It was built on time. It was built for $470 million. This was the planned amount of money Canada and the USA agreed to spend which is about the same as $4 billion today. Canada paid 70% of the total amount and still gets 70% of the money that the St Lawrence Seaway brings in every year. It is not enough.

The waterway has never made enough money to pay for the cost of building it. Most years it makes just enough money to pay to run it-about $3.4 billion. The St. Lawrence Seaway took trade away from the Erie Canal. That was one of many reasons that cities in New York State lost business and became poor. Perhaps the St. Lawrence Seaway was not such a good idea.

In 1890, when talks of building the St. Lawrence Seaway began, no one could think of anything more important than finding a way to help large ships with many goods find an easier way to get to Canada. Times have changed since then. First cars, trucks, trains, and then airplanes made travel faster. However, the St. Lawrence Seaway has more than 24 major stopping places for ships, called ports. Since it was built, more than 2.5 billion tonnes of goods, worth $375 billion, have come and gone from Canada and the USA to 50 other countries in the world. Today, the biggest ships that leave the USA with goods to sell, go to South America, Africa and Asia. The people who work along the St. Lawrence Seaway and the businesses that use it think it was a good idea.

The St. Lawrence Seaway brought big ships from Lake Ontario, through the waterways, to the port in Montreal. It let US navy ships and submarines quickly get to the ocean. The hydroelectric dam that was built there, gave electricity to the cities, factories and other businesses all along the St Lawrence Seaway. Finally, Jacques Cartier's dream 400 years earlier had come true. Large French ships could travel past the Long Sault Rapids to deliver French perfume and wine to the people of Montreal. Those ships could travel all the way north to Thunder Bay, Ontario and bring back grain for the French people to make French bread and croissants.

The day the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened, a newspaper in Toronto said the new seaway had “…moved the ocean a thousand miles inland.”