St Lawrence Seaway
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The St. Lawrence Seaway () is a system of
river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
s, locks,
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...
s and channels in Eastern Canada and
Northern United States The Northern United States, commonly referred to as the American North, the Northern States, or simply the North, is a geographical and historical region of the United States. History Early history Before the 19th century westward expansion, the ...
that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the
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to the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
of
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, as far inland as Duluth, Minnesota, at the western end of Lake Superior. The seaway is named for the St. Lawrence River, which flows straight from
Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...
to the Atlantic Gulf of St. Lawrence. Legally, the seaway extends from
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,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, to
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...
, and includes the Welland Canal. Ships from the Atlantic Ocean are able to reach ports in all five of the Great Lakes via the Great Lakes Waterway. The St. Lawrence River portion of the seaway is not a continuous waterway; rather, it consists of several stretches of navigable channels within the river, a number of locks, and canals along the banks of the St. Lawrence River to bypass several
rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient, gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Flow, gradient, constriction, and obstacles are four factors that are needed for a rapid t ...
and dams. A number of the locks are managed by the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation in
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, and others in the
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by the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation; the two bodies together advertise the seaway as part of "Highway H2O". The section of the river from Montreal to the Atlantic Ocean is under Canadian jurisdiction, regulated by the offices of
Transport Canada Transport Canada () is the Ministry (government department), department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, Policy, policies and Public services, services of road, rail, marine and air Transport in Canada, tra ...
in the Port of Quebec.


History

The St. Lawrence Seaway was preceded by several other canals. In 1871, locks on the St. Lawrence allowed transit of vessels long, wide, and deep. The First Welland Canal, constructed between 1824 and 1829, had a minimum lock size of long, wide, and deep, but it was generally too small to allow passage of larger oceangoing ships. The Welland Canal's minimum lock size was increased to long, wide, and deep for the Second Welland Canal; to long, wide, and deep with the Third Welland Canal; and to long, wide, and deep for the current (Fourth) Welland Canal. The first proposals for a binational comprehensive deep waterway along the St. Lawrence were made in the 1890s. In the following decades, developers proposed a hydropower project as inseparable from the seaway; the various governments and seaway supporters believed the deeper water to be created by the hydro project was necessary to make the seaway channels feasible for oceangoing ships. U.S. proposals for development up to and including the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
met with little interest from the Canadian federal government. But the two national governments submitted St. Lawrence plans to a group for study. By the early 1920s, both '' The Wooten-Bowden Report'' and the International Joint Commission recommended the project. Although Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was reluctant to proceed, in part because of opposition to the project in
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, in 1932 he and the U.S. representative signed a treaty of intent. This treaty was submitted to the U.S. Senate in November 1932 and hearings continued until a vote was taken on March 14, 1934. The majority voted in favor of the treaty, but it failed to gain the necessary two-thirds vote for ratification. Later attempts between the governments in the 1930s to forge an agreement came to naught due to opposition by the Ontario government of Mitchell Hepburn and the government of Quebec. In 1936, John C. Beukema, head of the Great Lakes Harbors Association and a member of the Great Lakes Tidewater Commission, was among a delegation of eight from the Great Lakes states to meet at the White House with U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
to obtain his support for the seaway concept. Beukema and St. Lawrence Seaway proponents were convinced a nautical link would lead to the development of the communities and economies of the Great Lakes region by permitting the passage of oceangoing ships. In this period, exports of grain, along with other commodities, to Europe were an important part of the national economy. Negotiations on the treaty resumed in 1938, and by January 1940 substantial agreement was reached between Canada and the United States. By 1941, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King made an executive agreement to build the joint hydro and navigation works, but this failed to receive the assent of the U.S. Congress. Proposals for the seaway were met with resistance; the primary opposition came from interests representing harbors on the
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
and Gulf Coasts and internal waterways and from the railroad associations. The railroads carried freight and goods between the coastal ports and the Great Lakes cities. After 1945, proposals to introduce tolls to the seaway were not sufficient to gain support for the project by the U.S. Congress. Growing impatient, and with Ontario desperate for the power to be generated by hydroelectricity, Canada began to consider developing the project alone. This seized the imagination of Canadians, engendering a groundswell of nationalism around the St. Lawrence. On September 28, 1951, Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent advised U.S. President Harry S. Truman that Canada was unwilling to wait for the United States and would build a seaway alone; the Canadian Parliament authorized the founding of the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority on December 21 of that year. Fueled by this support, Saint Laurent's administration decided during 1951 and 1952 to construct the waterway alone, combined with the Moses-Saunders Power Dam. (This became the joint responsibility of Ontario and New York: as a hydropower dam would change the water levels, it required bilateral cooperation.) The International Joint Commission issued an order of approval for joint construction of the dam in October 1952. U.S. Senate debate on the bill began on January 12, 1953, and the bill emerged from the House of Representatives Committee of Public Works on February 22, 1954. It received approval from the Senate and the House by May 1954. The first positive action to enlarge the seaway was taken on May 13, 1954, when U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Wiley-Dondero Seaway Act to authorize joint construction and establish the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation as the U.S. authority. The need for cheap haulage of Quebec-
Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...
iron ore was one of the arguments that finally swung the balance in favor of the seaway. Groundbreaking ceremonies took place in Massena, New York, on August 10, 1954. That year Eisenhower appointed Beukema to the five-member St. Lawrence Seaway Advisory Board. In May 1957, the Connecting Channels Project was begun by the
United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...
. By 1959, Beukema was on board the U.S. Coast Guard cutter ''Maple'' for the first trip through the U.S. locks, which opened up the Great Lakes to oceangoing ships. On April 25, 1959, large, deep-draft ocean vessels began streaming to the heart of the North American continent through the seaway, a project supported by every administration from
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through Eisenhower. In the United States, N. R. Danelian, worked with the U.S. Secretary of State on Canadian-U.S. issues regarding the seaway, persevering through 15 years to gain passage by the U.S. Congress of the Seaway Act. He later became president of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Association to promote seaway development to benefit the American heartland. The seaway was heavily promoted by the Eisenhower administration, which had been concerned with a lack of US control. The seaway opened in 1959 and cost C$470 million, $336.2 million of which was paid by the Canadian government.
Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
, Queen of Canada and President Eisenhower formally opened the seaway on June 26, 1959 with a short cruise aboard the royal yacht after addressing crowds in Saint-Lambert, Quebec. 22,000 workers were employed at one time or another on the project, a superhighway for ocean freighters. Port of Milwaukee director Harry C. Brockel forecast just before the Seaway opened in 1959 that "The St. Lawrence Seaway will be the greatest single development of this century in its effects on Milwaukee's future growth and prosperity." Lester Olsen, president of the Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said, "The magnitude and potential of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the power project stir the imagination of the world." The seaway's opening is often credited with making the
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigability, navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, ...
obsolete and causing the severe economic decline of several cities along the canal in
Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...
. But by the turn of the 20th century, the Erie Canal had already been largely supplanted by the railroads, which had been constructed across New York and could carry freight more quickly and cheaply. Upstate New York's economic decline was precipitated by numerous factors, only some of which had to do with the St. Lawrence Seaway. Under the Canada Marine Act (1998), the Canadian portions of the seaway were set up with a non-profit corporate structure; this legislation also introduced changes to federal ports. Great Lakes and seaway shipping generates $3.4 billion in business revenue annually in the United States. In 2002, ships moved 222 million tonnes of cargo through the seaway. Overseas shipments, mostly of inbound steel and outbound grain, accounted for 15.4 million tonnes, or 6.9%, of the total cargo moved. In 2004, seaway grain exports accounted for about 3.6% of U.S. overseas grain shipments, according to the U.S. Grains Council. In a typical year, seaway steel imports account for around 6% of the U.S. annual total. The toll revenue obtained from ocean vessels is about 25–30% of cargo revenue. The Port of
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shipped just over 2.5 million tonnes of grain, which is less than the port typically moved in the decade before the seaway opened Lake Superior to deep-draft oceangoing vessels in 1959. International changes have affected shipping through the seaway. Europe is no longer a major grain importer; large U.S. export shipments are now going to South America, Asia, and Africa. These destinations make Gulf and West Coast ports more critical to 21st-century grain exports. Referring to the seaway project, a retired Iowa State University economics professor who specialized in transportation issues said, "It probably did make sense, at about the time it (the Seaway) was constructed and conceived, but since then everything has changed." Certain seaway users have been concerned about the low water levels of the Great Lakes that had been recorded between 2010 and 2016.


Expansion proposal

The
Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...
was completed in 1914 and also serves oceangoing traffic. In the 1950s, seaway designers chose not to build the locks to match the size of ships permitted by the 1914 locks at the Panama Canal (, known as the Panamax limit). Instead, the seaway locks were built to match the smaller locks of Welland Canal, which opened in 1932. The seaway locks permit passage of a ship long by wide (the Seawaymax limit). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a study to expand the St. Lawrence Seaway, but the plan was scrapped in 2011 because of budgetary issues.


Locks in the St. Lawrence River

There are seven locks in the St. Lawrence River portion of the seaway. From downstream to upstream they are: # St. Lambert Lock— Saint Lambert, QC # Côte Ste. Catherine Lock— Sainte-Catherine, QC # Beauharnois Locks (two locks)— Melocheville, QC, at and # Snell Lock— Massena, NY # Eisenhower LockMassena, NY # Iroquois Lock—
Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
, ON, at Water Level Elevations: * Lake Ontario is above sea level. * The drop through Iroquois Lock is . * Lake St. Lawrence is above sea level. * The drop through Eisenhower Lock is . * The Wiley-Dondero Canal is above sea level. * The drop through Snell Lock is . * Lake St. Francis is above sea level . * The drop through Upper Beauharnois Lock is . * The Beauharnois Canal is above sea level. * The drop through Lower Beauharnois Lock is . * Lake St. Louis is above sea level. * The drop through Côte Ste. Catherine Lock is . * Laprairie Basin is above sea level. * The drop through St. Lambert Lock is . * The drop through the Lachine Rapids is a few feet. * Montreal Harbour is approximately above sea level.


Locks in the Welland Canal

There are eight locks on the Welland Canal. From the north to the south, there is lock 1 at Port Weller, followed by Lock 2 and then Lock 3, a site with a visitors' information centre and museum in St. Catharines, Ontario. There are four locks in Thorold, Ontario, including twin-flight locks 4, 5 and 6, with Lock 7 leading up to the main channel. The Lake Erie level control lock sits in Port Colborne, Ontario.


Lock, channel dimensions, and additional statistical data

The size of vessels that can traverse the seaway is limited by the size of the locks. Those on the St. Lawrence and the Welland Canal are long, wide, and deep. The maximum allowed vessel size is slightly smaller: long, wide, and deep. After the opening of the seaway, many vessels designed for use on the Great Lakes were built to the maximum size permissible by the locks, known informally as Seawaymax or Seaway-Max. Large vessels of the lake freighter fleet are built on the lakes and cannot travel downstream beyond the Welland Canal. On the remaining Great Lakes, these ships are constrained only by the largest lock on the Great Lakes Waterway, the Poe Lock at the Soo Locks (at Sault Ste. Marie), which is long, wide, and deep. A vessel's
draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
is another obstacle to its passage on the seaway, particularly in connecting waterways such as the St. Lawrence River. The depth in the seaway's channels is (Panamax depth) downstream of
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, between Quebec City and Deschaillons, to Montreal, and upstream of Montreal. Channel depths and limited lock sizes mean that only 10% of current oceangoing ships, which have been built much larger than in the 1950s, can traverse the entire seaway. Proposals to expand the seaway, dating from as early as the 1960s, have been rejected since the late 20th century as too costly. In addition, researchers, policy makers, and the public are much more aware of the environmental issues that have accompanied seaway development and are reluctant to open the Great Lakes to more invasions of damaging species, as well as associated issues along the canals and river. Questions have been raised as to whether such infrastructure costs could ever be recovered. Lower water levels in the Great Lakes have also posed problems for some vessels in recent years, and pose greater issues to communities, industries, and agriculture in the region. While the seaway is (as of 2010) mostly used for shipping
bulk cargo Bulk cargo is Product (business), product cargo that is transported packaging, unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate (as a mass of relatively small solids) form, ...
, the possibility of its use for large-scale container shipping is under consideration as well. If the expansion project were to go ahead,
feeder ship Feeder vessels or feeder ships are medium-size freight Ship, ships. In general, a feeder means a seagoing vessel with an average capacity of . Feeders collect Intermodal container, shipping containers from different ports and transport them to cen ...
s would take containers from the port of Oswego on Lake Ontario in upstate New York to Melford International Terminal in
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for transfer to larger oceangoing ships. A website hosts measurements of wind, water, levels and water temperatures. A real-time interactive map of seaway locks, vessels, and ports is available at. The United States'
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
-funded Great Lakes Water Level Dashboard compiles statistics on water depth at various points along the seaway.


Ecology

To create a navigable channel through the Long Sault rapids and to allow
hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
stations to be established immediately upriver from Cornwall, Ontario, and Massena, New York, Lake St. Lawrence was created behind a dam. This required the condemnation and acquisition by the government of all the properties of six villages and three hamlets in Ontario; these are now collectively known as The Lost Villages. The area was flooded beginning on July 1, 1958, creating the lake. There was also inundation on the New York side of the border, and the village of Louisville Landing was submerged. A notable adverse environmental effect of the operation of the seaway has been the introduction of numerous
invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...
of aquatic animals into the Great Lakes Basin. The zebra mussel has been most damaging in the Great Lakes and through its invasion of related rivers, waterways, and city water facilities. Invasive species and artificial water level controls imposed by the seaway have had a negative impact on recreational fishing. The seaway, along with the St. Lawrence River it passes through, also provides opportunities for outdoor recreation, such as
boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, suc ...
, camping,
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
, and
scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...
. Of note, the Old Power House near Lock 23 (near Morrisburg, Ontario) became an attractive site for scuba divers. The submerged stone building has become covered with barnacles and is home to an abundance of underwater life. The seaway passes through the St. Lawrence River, which provides a number of diveable
shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...
s within recreational scuba limits (shallower than ). The region also offers technical diving, with some wrecks lying at . The water temperature can be as warm as during the mid- to late-summer months. The first of Lake Ontario is warmed and enters the St. Lawrence River, as the fast-moving water body has no thermocline circulation. On July 12, 2010, ''Richelieu'' (owned by Canada Steamship Lines) ran aground after losing power near the Côte-Sainte-Catherine lock. The grounding punctured a fuel tank, spilling an estimated of
diesel fuel Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a re ...
, covering approximately . The seaway and lock were shut down to help contain the spill.


International trade and tourism

The seaway is important for American and Canadian international trade. It handles 40–50 million annual tonnes of cargo. About 50% of this cargo carried travels to and from international ports in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The rest comprises coastal trade, or short sea shipping, between various American and Canadian ports. Among international shippers are found: * Polsteam, which maintains a fleet of dry-bulk only vessels that transit every two weeks from the Dutch town of IJmuiden to Duluth, Minnesota * Fednav Group, a private international dry-bulk only ocean transportation group, with routes between the Port of Antwerp and Sorel, Quebec, even in wintertime * World Shipping Inc., a privately owned global logistics operation * Canfornav, a subsidiary of Canfor, which does dry bulk only and registers most of its vessels in
Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
* American Steamship Company, a subsidiary of the General American Transportation Corporation (GATX) * Rand Logistics, which was formed from the acquisition of Lower Lakes Towing Ltd, and does not ship containers * McKeil Marine, headquartered in Hamilton, which provides service to Arctic ports * Groupe Desgagnés, * The Port of Montreal is the site of operations of ** Maersk Line, a unit of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group ** Mediterranean Shipping Company ** Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement / Compagnie Generale Maritime, a French transshipper ** Hapag-Lloyd acquired the Port of Montreal docks of, along with the rest of, CP Ships in 2005 ** Orient Overseas Container Line, a Hong Kong-based multinational * Arrimage Quebec, which has stevedoring operations in Baie-Comeau, Becancour,
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, Cote-Sainte-Catherine, Gaspe, Gros-Cacouna,
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, Matane,
Oshawa Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the Greater Toronto Area and of the Golden Horseshoe. It ...
, Pointe-au-Pic, Port Colborne, Portneuf,
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, Rimouski, Saguenay, Sept-Iles, Sorel-Tracy, St. Catharines, and other ports in the Maritime provinces of Canada. The St. Lawrence Seaway (along with ports in Quebec) is the main route for Ontario grain exports to overseas markets. Its fees are publicly known, and were limited in 2013 to an increase of 3%. A trained pilot is required for any foreign trade vessel. A set of rules and regulations are available to help transit. Commercial vessel transit information is hosted on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation website. Since 1997, international cruise liners have been known to transit the seaway. The Hapag-Lloyd ''Christopher Columbus'' carried 400 passengers to Duluth, Minnesota, that year. Since then, the number of annual seaway cruising passengers has increased to 14,000. Every year, more than 2,000 recreational boats, of more than 20 ft and one ton, transit the seaway. The tolls have been fixed for 2017 at $30 per lock. There is a $5 per lock discount for payment in advance. Lockages are scheduled 12 hours a day between the hours of 07:00 and 19:00 from June 15 to September 15. A list of organisations that serve the seaway in some fashion, such as chambers of commerce and municipal or port authorities, is available at the SLSDC website. A 56-page electronic "Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System" Directory is published by Harbor House Publishers.


Map

''Map of the world Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway from 1959,'' depicting the entire length beginning at the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the east to the westernmost terminus at Lake Superior.


See also

* Container on barge *
Glossary of nautical terms (A-L) Glossary of nautical terms may refer to: * Glossary of nautical terms (A–L) * Glossary of nautical terms (M–Z) {{Short pages monitor