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Place Name
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Saint Lawrence Seaway
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Place Status (Type)
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waterway
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Location
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Quebec, Canada, North America
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Latitude
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unknown
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Longitude
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unknown
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Saint Lawrence Seaway
, internatl. waterway of NE U.S. and SE
Canada, 360 mi/579 km long; it is the portion
of the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes Waterway System from Montreal, Que.,
on the St. Lawrence R., to Port Colborne, Ont., on L. Erie, at S end of
Welland Canal. Includes series of 7 locks and dams on St. Lawrence R.
that lift oceangoing ships from 20 ft/6 m to
L. Ontario's surface elev. of 246 ft/75 m.
The locks are St. Lambert, Montreal; Cote Ste. Catherine, Montreal (L.
St. Louis); Lower Beauharnois, Upper Beauharnois, both at Beauharnois,
Que. (L. St. Francis); Snell, Cornwall, Ont.; Eisenhower (Moses
Saunders Power Dam), Massena, N.Y.; Iroquois, Prescott,
Ont.-Ogdensburg, N.Y. The dams are also used to generate electricity.
The Welland Canal, which connects L. Ontario and L. Erie, is also part
of the Seaway. It parallels the Niagara R.
10 mi/16 km-15 mi/24 km
to the W and overcomes the 326 ft/99 m Niagara
Escarpment, the most formidable barrier on the entire waterway network,
to L. Erie's 572 ft/174 m. The Seaway allows
a min. depth of 27 ft/8 m, allowing ships
having a max. draught of 25 ft/8 m to pass in
and out of the Great Lakes. Construction began on the Seaway in 1954
after more than a decade of negotiations, agreements, and planning. It
was formally opened on April 25, 1959. The Welland Canal was originally
built in 1829 and its present course established bet. St. Catherines
and Port Colbourne in 1833. A series of improvements followed, the
latest being in 1973, which straightened, widened, and deepened an
8 mi/12.9 km sect. Completion of the Seaway
allowed ships from the Atlantic Ocean to reach such distant inland lake
ports as Chicago, on L. Michigan, and Duluth, on L. Superior. Despite
its advantages, there have been difficulties.
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