Saint Lawrence Seaway is a major commercial waterway that links the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. It lies on the border between Canada and the United States. The seaway is formed by the St. Lawrence River, several lakes, and a system of canals and locks. It includes a hydroelectric power project that supplies electric power to parts of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York.
The St. Lawrence Seaway handles about 50 million short tons (45 million metric tons) of cargo annually. Most of the freight travels from Canada and the United States to countries in Europe. The freight consists mainly of bulk cargo, such as grain, minerals, and other raw products. The seaway is the cheapest shipping route for large quantities of these products. Iron ore and grains, which are bulk cargoes, make up about 65 percent of the tonnage. Other freight carried on the seaway includes coal, oil, and general cargo, which consists of such manufactured products as automobiles and steel.
Canadian ships carry about 65 percent of the seaway trade. The United States and other nations transport the rest.
The Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes have different elevations, but canals and locks enable ships to navigate the seaway. Most of the canals and locks are on the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Lake Ontario. The rest form the Welland Ship Canal, which connects Lakes Ontario and Erie. Lake Ontario, the lowest of the Great Lakes, is more than 200 feet (61 meters) higher than the ocean.
Canada and the United States began to build the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1954 and completed it in 1959. Each nation built and operates its own section of the waterway. The seaway plays an important part in the economies of both countries.
The seaway system
The St. Lawrence Seaway extends about 450 miles (724 kilometers) from the eastern end of Lake Erie to Montreal. Major Canadian ports served by the waterway include Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Thunder Bay. Among the chief U.S. ports that handle seaway shipping are Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Duluth.
The seaway includes about 65 miles (105 kilometers) of canals, plus 15 locks and 3 dams. The dams hold back part of the St. Lawrence River and so form a reservoir called Lake St. Lawrence. The seaway’s hydroelectric power project uses water from Lake St. Lawrence to generate electric power. The other lakes along the route of the seaway are broad areas of the St. Lawrence River.
Canals and locks
of the waterway are operated by the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation in Canada, and by the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation in the United States. The Canadian agency administers about 55 miles (89 kilometers) of canals and 13 locks. Seven of the locks are between Montreal and Lake Ontario, and the rest make up the Welland Canal. The U.S. agency runs about 10 miles (16 kilometers) of canals, plus two locks near Massena, New York. The agencies jointly set tolls.
All the seaway’s canals are at least 200 feet (61 meters) wide and 27 feet (8 meters) deep. The locks measure 80 feet (24 meters) wide, 766 feet (233 meters) long, and 30 feet (9 meters) deep. A ship passes through one of the locks in about 35 minutes.
The seaway is open from late March or early April to late December. In good weather, a ship can travel the entire route in about 11/2 days. But fog and high winds sometimes delay traffic. Also, ships are often delayed by the Welland Canal, which was not designed to handle the growing number of vessels that use the seaway.
The hydroelectric power project
along the seaway is at the Moses-Saunders Dam, between Cornwall, Ontario, and Massena, New York. The dam supplies about 1,600,000 kilowatts of electric power to sections of Ontario and New York. It is managed jointly by the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario and the New York Power Authority.
Lake St. Lawrence, which provides the water used by the power project, is more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) long. The lake is a calm stretch of water that once included an area of rapids. The three dams that form the lake eliminated the rapids. These dams are the Moses-Saunders, the Long Sault, and the Iroquois.
History
Early canals.
Rapids on the St. Lawrence River hampered early European traders in Canada who wanted to use it as a shipping and exploration route. The Europeans solved this problem by digging canals around the areas of the rapids. One of the first canals was begun in 1680 by Francois Dollier de Casson, who was head of the Sulpician Order, a Roman Catholic religious group that then controlled Montreal. This canal was designed to enable fur traders to by-pass the Lachine Rapids near Montreal.
As more and more canals were built, the St. Lawrence River gradually became a major Canadian shipping route. The economies of Montreal and other Canadian cities along the river depended on this trade.
The Erie Canal opened in 1825 and began to attract much shipping away from the river. The canal, which was built by New York, extended across that state from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. It provided a shorter route between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes, and it served New York City, a major seaport. But the St. Lawrence remained a competitive route for goods being shipped to Britain. Canada was then a British colony and so Canadian merchants had certain tax advantages over Americans who exported goods to Britain. As a result, American merchants got higher prices by shipping goods to traders in Montreal than by selling them directly to the British market.
Canada also helped the St. Lawrence compete with the Erie by building the Welland Canal. This canal, completed in 1829, linked Lakes Erie and Ontario and provided a direct water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes region.
First construction plans.
In 1895, Canada and the United States began to discuss a plan to improve the St. Lawrence for shipping. The project included deepening the river and the canals so that any ship could travel between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes.
In 1909, the Canadian and U.S. governments created the International Joint Commission to administer the boundary waters of the two countries. In 1921, the commission recommended that a joint navigation-power project be undertaken in the upper St. Lawrence area.
Many industries in Canada and the United States opposed the proposed project. Railroads and Atlantic ports, for example, feared that the seaway would compete for their freight business. Coal companies claimed that the power stations would reduce the amount of coal used to generate electric power in the region of the seaway.
Groups were organized in both countries to work for approval of the seaway project. These groups stressed the international trade and the great amounts of inexpensive electric power that the project would bring to the Great Lakes region.
In 1932, Canada and the United States signed the St. Lawrence Deep Waterway Treaty. This agreement called for construction of a waterway 27 feet (8 meters) deep between Montreal and Lake Erie, plus four hydroelectric power stations. But the United States Senate rejected the treaty in 1934.
Agreements of 1941 and 1954.
New interest in the proposed seaway occurred during World War II (1939-1945). The war created a great demand in both Canada and the United States for electric power and for ports in which to build ships. In March 1941, about nine months before the United States entered the war, the two nations signed the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin Agreement. This agreement involved the same proposals as the 1932 treaty. The agreement also included plans for additional production of electric power at the Niagara Falls power project.
The agreement was subject to approval by the U.S. Congress. But it was set aside for more urgent legislation after the United States entered the war in December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered issuing an executive order to start construction of the power project. Production of weapons and war materials had caused serious power shortages in Ontario and New York. Roosevelt decided against the order after learning that the project would take at least three years to complete.
The House of Representatives took up the agreement in 1943. But little was accomplished until 1951, when Canada announced plans to build the waterway on its own. Canada also offered to construct the hydroelectric project in cooperation with New York. At the same time, Canada created the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority (now the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation) to direct the undertaking.
Canada’s actions caused U.S. supporters of the waterway to increase their efforts to obtain congressional approval of cooperation in the project. Finally, in 1954, Congress approved U.S. participation and created the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. Canada and the United States then made new plans for the seaway. These plans called for the present number of canals, locks, and power stations.
Construction of the seaway.
The power project was begun in August 1954, and construction of the waterway itself started a month later. The Canadian and U.S. governments had to relocate railways and highways and about 6,500 people who lived in certain areas of Ontario and New York. These areas would be covered by the new reservoir, Lake St. Lawrence. The project flooded about 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) of farmland in Canada and the United States. Six villages and two towns had to be abandoned. Canada and the United States built communities near Lake St. Lawrence for the displaced people. The power station began to produce electric power in 1958.
The seaway opened officially on June 26, 1959. However, ships had been using it since April. A Dutch ship, the Prins Johan Willem Friso, was the first oceangoing vessel to travel through the seaway to Chicago. It docked there on April 30.
During the first year of operation, the St. Lawrence Seaway carried about 20 million short tons (18 million metric tons) of cargo. However, several temporary problems hampered the waterway at first. Traffic jams were caused by slow-moving ships, whose pilots were unfamiliar with the seaway. Some ports on the Great Lakes could not handle the large number of vessels that used the waterway. Some ships that docked at these ports had to wait several days to be loaded or unloaded.
The seaway today.
Although the seaway has been a success for commercial shipping, the Canadian government has lost money on its operation. The government has gradually increased tolls charged at its locks to reduce this loss. The United States has not lost as much money because it operates a smaller section.
Supporters of the seaway project expected it to be a major shipping route for general cargo as well as bulk cargo. However, the development of container ships resulted in the seaway’s becoming chiefly a route for bulk cargo. General cargo is carried mainly by container ships, most of which are too large to enter the seaway. These ships carry cargo that can be stored in metal or wooden shipping units called containers. Containers are easy to handle, and they can be hauled inland by train or truck. Long, flat ships called lake carriers or lakers have been developed especially for Great Lakes traffic. Some lakers can navigate ocean waters.
