Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Green's Great Lakes & Seaway Directory, 1965, p. 244

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tario as well as in the Welland Ship Canal, the second authorizing the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario (HEPCO) to join a United States power generating entity in constructing the neces- sary power works in the International Rapids Section of the St. Law- rence River. 10. In 1952, in order to get the power project underway, the Cana- dian and United States Governments submitted joint applications for the approval of the International Joint Commission to the pro- posed power development, on the understanding that the Canadian Government would undertake to construct, more or less concurrently, and to operate all the works necessary to insure uninterrupted 27 foot navigation between Montreal and Lake Erie. Approval of this approval was given by the International Joint Commission in an Order of Approval dated October 29, 1952. 11. In 1953, the U.S. Federal Power Commission granted a 50-year license to the Power Authority of the State of New York (PASNY) for the development of the United States half of this power project. Because the Order granting this license to PASNY was contested in U.S. courts, it was not until June of 1954 that PASNY had clear authority to join HEPCO in making a start on these works. 12. In the meantime, however, the United States Congress had en- acted the Wiley-Dondero Bill (P.L. 83-358) which authorized and directed the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation to construct, on United States territory, all the 27 foot navigation fa- cilities required to get shipping around the navigational barriers in the International Rapids Section. The situation thereby created re- quired close consultation between the Canadian and the United States Governments in order to avoid a duplication of locks and canals. The number of compromises and accommodations were eventually worked out and embodied in a series of exchanges of Notes according to which the United States agreed to build a canal and two locks on United States territory to by-pass the Barnhart-Cornwall generating , dam at the foot of the Long Sault Rapids and, in addition to do some essential dredging elsewhere, while Canada agreed to build a lock and canal around the Iroquois Control Dam some 30 miles upstream and, in addition, to complete to a common standard all the necessary navigation facilities in Canadian territory, i.e. between Montreal and Cornwall and in the Welland Ship Canal. The estimated cost to the United States of these works was of the order of $100 million while the estimated cost to Canada was to amount to about $200 million. 13. The first sod on the St. Lawrence Power Project was turned on August 10, 1954. Work on the Seaway began in September of 1954. As already stated, all the works are to be ready for more or less full scale operation by June of 1959. Description of Navigation Facilities 14. Some idea of the magnitude of the work undertaken can be ob- tained by taking an imaginary voyage on a ship west-bound from Montreal. a) St. Lambert Lock: More or less opposite the pool of Montreal harbour can be seen the protecting dyke of the channel giving access to the Seaway. This channel begins just east of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, passes be- neath the bridge and extends for three miles before reaching the first lock of the Seaway, the St. Lambert Lock, at the southern end of the Victoria Bridge. (At Victoria Bridge are lift spans and a sys- tem of rail and road traffic diversion.) The St. Lambert Lock will lift the ship some 15 feet from the level of Montreal harbour to the level of Laprairie Basin through which the ship channel sweeps in a great arc 8% miles long between its projecting embankments to the second lock. b) Cote Ste. Catherine Lock: The Cote Ste. Catherine Lock, like the other six new seaway locks and the seven lift locks on the Welland Ship Canal, has been built to the following standard dimensions: length 768 feet length between stop signs in lock 715 feet width 80 feet depth over sills 30 feet This lock, which will require 24 million gallons of water to fill, can be filled or emptied in less than ten minutes. It will lift ships from the level of Laprairie Basin through 30 feet to the level of Lake St. ouis. 244 The function of this lock is to by-pass the Lachine Rapids, Be- yond it, the channel runs 7% miles before reaching Lake St. Louis, Over this channel at one point tower the piers which give Honore Mercier highway bridge 120 feet of clearance for ships. Further up- stream the Canadian Pacific Railway bridge has had two lift spans installed to allow for the passage of ships. These lift spans can be raised or lowered in a minute and a half. ce) Lake St. Louis & the Beauharnois Locks Entering Lake St. Louis the ship will proceed some 12 miles by dredged channels before reaching the Lower Beauharnois Lock at the west end of the Lake. The minimum width of St. Lawrence Seaway channels is 200 feet when provided with two embankments, 300 feet when there is only one embankment, and 450 feet in the open reaches. The depth in canals and channels is 27 feet. The Lower Beauharnois Lock by-passing the Beauharnois Power House lifts the ship 41 feet so that it may pass through a short canal to the Upper Beauharnois Lock, where it is again lifted 41 feet so as to reach the level of Lake St. Francis; after some 13 miles in the Beauharnois Canal, the ship enters Lake St. Francis. It sails west- ward for some 30 miles by dredged channels to the head of the lake, All locks and channels to this point have been built by Canada's St. Lawrence Seaway Authority. d) United States Locks: The ship canal leaves Lake St. Francis at the southwest corner and before long crosses the International Boundary just opposite St. Regis, Quebec. From here to the first lock on the United States side is only five miles. Entering the Snell Lock, the ship is lifted 45 feet into the Wiley-Dondero Canal (10 miles long) and is then lifted an- other 38 feet by the Eisenhower Lock into Lake St. Lawrence, the power pool on which HEPCO and PASNY will draw for the water used in the turbines at Barnhart Island-Cornwall Power House Dam, just a mile to the north. The ship canal through Lake St. Lawrence passes where rapids once tossed the water into an angry foam. e) Iroquois Lock: At the western end of Lake St. Lawrence, the Seaway Authority of Canada has built a lock to allow ships to by-pass the Iroquois Control Dam. Once in the water of the St. Lawrence west of Iroqouis, the ship channel meanders through the Thousand Islands past Pres- cott, Brockville and on to Kingston on Lake Ontario. g) Welland Ship Canal: From Port Weller on Lake Ontario to Port Colborne on Lake Erie is 27 miles. Through a series of eight locks (three of them twin locks allowing passage of ships in both directions simultaneously) the ship is raised through 326 feet to the level of Lake Erie. The Economy of the Seaway 15. By most recent figures, new work on the Seaway proper from Montreal to Lake Erie will cost Canada about $330 million; work in the International reaches of the River will cost United States $128 million, (The two power entities will have spent $600 million in de- veloping the power at Barnhart, $300 million by HEPCO and $300 million by PASNY. These sums, which have been raised by floating bonds and by other types of borrowing, will be financed out of reve- nues realized from the sale of power.) 16. To finance the navigation projects, tolls are to be charged. Costs of construction, operation and maintenance are to be recovered in fifty years. The toll levies have been carefully worked out on eco- nomic forecasts of expected traffic, with an eye always to competi- tive carriers--rail and road--and on the assumption that the use of the new facilities will increase progressively from a first year total of 25 million tons to a maximum of 50 million tons in ten years. On this basis the tolls will be charged as follows: Summary Thus, the aspirations of many generations of traders, explorers, businessmen and politicians are at last about to be realized. It has been calculated that about 80 per cent of the merchant shipping of the world could use the improved facilities of the St. Lawrence Seaway; when all the interconnecting channels have been complet- ed, the industrialized heartland that has been developed along the fringes of the Great Lakes will be accessible to most of the mer- chantmen that trade upon the high seas. ; Quite aside from the material advantages which the Seaway will bring, it would be a mistake to overlook the establishment of the co- operative working arrangements that have been developed in the course of the construction of these mighty works between Canada and her neighbour, the United States. Nothing could be more fitting than that these joint facilities should be opened ceremonially by her. Majesty the Queen and by President Eisenhower in June of 1959.

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