The Great Lakes System
Near the intersection of the Hudson Bay, Mississippi and St. Lawrence River drainage basins, there are five Great Lakes, with a sixth smaller lake, Lake St. Clair, connecting Lakes Erie and Huron via the Detroit River. Together with the St. Lawrence River, which is the main outlet of the Great Lakes, it is the largest freshwater surface water system in the world. The Great Lakes system is part of a series of large lake systems that extend across the Canadian Prairies and Northwest Territories and include Lakes Winnipeg, Athabasca, Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake. Although the elevation of the Great Lakes varies from one to the other (183 metres above sea level for Lake Superior and 74 metres for Lake Ontario, for example), nothing is as out of place in terms of difference in elevation as the impressive Niagara Falls on the river of the same name, one on the U.S. side and the other in Canada, which has the largest volume of water in the world, 2 832m3/s. Due to erosion of the escarpment, the falls are now some 11 km from their point of origin. It was at the end of the last ice age that the Great Lakes began to form, one by one, as early as 14 000 B.C. through differential erosion of bedrock by glaciers. The shape of the basins in which they are found is entirely the result of the geological structures of the region, giving, for example, a very arched shape to Lakes Michigan and Huron.
Coveted from the earliest days of European settlement, and used long before by First Nations, the Great Lakes system and the St. Lawrence Seaway played a major role in the fur trade, as well as in the various conflicts between the French, British and even Americans. While the Great Lakes are still an important shipping system in North America today, they are also an important source of hydroelectricity and a favourable location for the development of agriculture. Taking advantage of a unique "lake effect" climate that moderates seasonal temperatures, areas near the lakes enjoy fertile farmland, orchards and extensive vineyards.Construction of the Seaway
Built and managed through a binational partnership between Canada and the U.S., the St. Lawrence Seaway is a 3,700-kilometre-long, deep navigable waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Superior, the westernmost Great Lake. While there is a tendency to include all of this territory in this term, the administration of the Seaway system officially extends from the Port of Montreal to Lake Erie. Approximately 40 million tonnes of cargo are carried annually by a few thousand ships, facilitating the transit of goods produced in cities bordering the Great Lakes (Thunder Bay, Duluth, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Erie, Toronto, etc.) to the Atlantic Ocean.
At the end of the 17th century, the idea of building a canal to bypass the rapids from Lachine to Montreal was raised by Dollier de Casson, superior of the Sulpician Seminary. This was done nearly 150 years later, in 1824, with the completion of the Casson Canal (later renamed the Lachine Canal). From the end of the 18th century, and for nearly two hundred years, the construction of canals and locks will continue (there will be a total of 5 canals and 15 locks at the end of the work). However, a solution had to be found to cross Niagara Falls from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. Prior to the construction of the Welland Canal, traffic between the two lakes was carried by portage between the communities of Chippawa and Queenston, both upstream and downstream of Niagara Falls, respectively. Construction of the first canal began in 1824. Three more canals were built later, but the fourth canal is still in operation today. It is 42 km long and connects Port Weller, which depends on St. Catharines (Lake Ontario), to Port Colborne (Lake Erie), and includes seven locks at the Niagara Escarpment and an eighth at Port Colborne to control the depth of the canal. It allows boats to bypass Niagara Falls to pass the Niagara Escarpment, a trip that takes approximately 11 hours. For more information, there is an interpretive centre at Lock No. 3 of the Welland Canal in St. Catharines. The Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum can also be visited.
In 1895, Canada and the United States began examining the feasibility of a Seaway by organizing a joint Deep Waterway Commission. Other commissions would follow but without real impact. It wasn't until the middle of the 20th century that things began to move, with growing commercial pressures playing a major role. More than $470 million will be invested in the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which will be completed in 1959 as the Great Lakes region is finally connected to world markets.A vital business link
Having become a veritable industrial and agricultural lung, and considered one of the greatest technical achievements of the 20th century, it facilitated trade eastward through the St. Lawrence Seaway, but also to the southern United States through the tributaries of the Great Lakes. Indeed, the vast Great Lakes-Seaway system, in addition to the regional rail and highway networks of both countries, is a binational trade corridor for the transportation of raw materials, agricultural commodities and manufactured goods. More than 200 million short tons (180 million metric tons) of cargo move through the entire system on an annual basis. The waterway is used by both U.S. and Canadian domestic carriers and ocean vessel operators, and includes some of the largest ports on the North American continent. The economic activity generated by the transportation of goods amounts to approximately $45 billion and generates nearly 240,000 jobs in both countries. If we look at the entire region and its industrial and agricultural activities, the combined GDP is in excess of $6 trillion. Its nickname of "vital commercial link" therefore suits it to perfection!
To learn more about the maritime history of the Great Lakes, with a fine collection of artifacts and supporting archives, visit the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston.
