Evening star., 1953-05-10

Geography
The dream of the white men along
the st. Lawrence was ineScapable.
Upstream from the rapids at Mont
real lies q long, majestic river. And
above the source of this river lies
more than half the fresh water on
earth-in the five massive catch
basins that make up the Great
Lakes.
From Duluth, at the head of Lake
Superior, the airline distance to
the open Pacific at the Straits Of
Juan de Fuca and the airline dis
tance to the open Atlantic at Cape
North, Nova Scotia, are practically
equal-about 1850 miles. Duluth
is at the continents center. But
from Duluth west there are noun
tainS, plains and deserts, while from
Duluth east there is a reasonably
clear water course.
This was the stuff of which the
dream was made. While nature
had carved great, fresh-Water in
land sea in the heart Of America,
nature also had established q num-
ber Of obstacles to the use of that
sea.
BOttlenecks. Some Of these OBJ
stacleS, over the years, have proved
trivial. Others have been difficult
to conquer. None has been insur-
mountable, as is proved by the fact
that there Is small waterway in
existence today from Duluth to the
Atlantic.
The places where these bottle
necks exist amount to roughly IS
per cent of the total Seaway length
about $40 miles out of 1850 miles
Of water. Enumerated downstream,
they are:
Q st. MaryS River, between Lakes
Superior and Huron; SO miles.
. st. Clair Riuer-Ldke st. Cldir-
Detroit RiDer, between Lakes Huron
and Erie in the Detroit area; 80
miles.
. Niagara Riuer, between Lakes
Erie and Ontario near Buffalo;
SO miles.
. Thousand Islands, between Lake
Ontario and Ogdensburg, N. Y;
So miles.
o international RdpidS-SoulGnoe
-L1chine Rapids, between Ogdens-
burg and Montreal; lis miles.
BreakthrOughs. The first effort
to break the bottleneck was made in
1888, when a canal was dug about
20 miles upstream from Montreal.
Also before the end of the 18th cen
tury, the Northwest Fur Co. built a
canal around the rapids separating
Lakes Superior and Huron. Since
then this work has been done:
o St. MGryS River. The famous
$500" Canal, comprising four parallel
American locks and one outmoded
Canadian lock, has been built. It
lifts or lowers vessels 202 feet De-
tween Superior and Huron. Chan
pels afford a depth Of Is feet from
the other direction because ore boats
60 down heavy and come back light.
The 500 Canal is today the busiest
waterway Of its kind in the world.
1cebound four months a year, it
carries more traffic in the other
eight months than the Suez,
Panama and Manchester Ship
Canals combined carry in II
months. The vast majority of
cargoes passed through the 500 are
iron ore-about IS million tons a
year in the recent past.
o Detroit area. Channels have
been dredged to IS feet downbound
and 81 feet upbound, so that any
ship transiting the 500 can enter
Lake Erie.
. Niagara River. Canada has built
the Welland Canal, q 28-mile work
with eight locks which transfers
ships between Lake Erie (the higher
lake, and Lake Ontario. a vertical
distance Of 325 feet. Most Of the
canals bottom is dredged to a feet
in both directions, and its locks are
built with at least 80 feet Of water
over the concrete sillS.
Q Thousand Islands. Both Canada
and the United States have done
dredging in this area, most Of 1t to
a 27-foot depth.
. Oodensbur0 to Montreal. The
Canadians have built q canal with a
depth of only IA feet, and with locks
256 feet long. This, at the present
time, Is the major bottleneck. It
limits seagoing commerce In the
Lakes to 1,000-ton ships, aS the
United States found In World War II
when the Maritime Commission de-
signed ships which would Just At in
fhamA loNRa