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133-477: The Trent–Severn Waterway is a 386-kilometre-long (240 mi) canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay , Lake Huron , at Port Severn . Its major natural waterways include the Trent River , Otonabee River , Kawartha Lakes , Lake Simcoe , Lake Couchiching and Severn River . Its scenic, meandering route has been called "one of the finest interconnected systems of navigation in

266-547: A caisson of water in which boats float while being moved between two levels; and inclined planes where a caisson is hauled up a steep railway. To cross a stream, road or valley (where the delay caused by a flight of locks at either side would be unacceptable) the valley can be spanned by a navigable aqueduct – a famous example in Wales is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site ) across

399-510: A drainage divide atop a ridge , generally requiring an external water source above the highest elevation . The best-known example of such a canal is the Panama Canal . Many canals have been built at elevations, above valleys and other waterways. Canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination such as a city where water is needed. The Roman Empire 's aqueducts were such water supply canals. The term

532-502: A marine railway at Big Chute which transports boats between the upper and lower sections of the Severn. The system also includes 39 swing bridges and 160 dams and control structures that manage the water levels for flood control and navigation on lakes and rivers that drain approximately 18,600 square kilometres (7,182 sq mi) of central Ontario's cottage country region, across four counties and three single-tier cities, an area that

665-415: A "cistern", or depressed area just downstream from the fall, to "cushion" the water by providing a deep pool for its kinetic energy to be diffused in. Vertical falls work for drops of up to 1.5 m in height, and for discharge of up to 15 cubic meters per second. The transport capacity of pack animals and carts is limited. A mule can carry an eighth-ton [250 pounds (113 kg)] maximum load over

798-639: A body determined to deserve success." For the next forty years, the Association maintained its pressure on successive governments and never allowed any of them to renege on their agreements to continue work on the system. Their basic concept, agreed to at their first meeting, was to arrange periodic meetings of all the municipal leaders along the route, and collect petitions from their constituents, as well as ask them to write letters directly to their members of Parliament. This quickly produced an almost continual stream of letters. The concept proved successful, and

931-496: A canal has a series of dams and locks that create reservoirs of low speed current flow. These reservoirs are referred to as slack water levels , often just called levels . A canal can be called a navigation canal when it parallels a natural river and shares part of the latter's discharges and drainage basin , and leverages its resources by building dams and locks to increase and lengthen its stretches of slack water levels while staying in its valley . A canal can cut across

1064-413: A combination of the three, depending on available water and available path: Smaller transportation canals can carry barges or narrowboats , while ship canals allow seagoing ships to travel to an inland port (e.g., Manchester Ship Canal ), or from one sea or ocean to another (e.g., Caledonian Canal , Panama Canal ). At their simplest, canals consist of a trench filled with water. Depending on

1197-649: A combined canal and rail network. This would start in Coburg and run via railway to Sully (today known as Harwood), where it would connect to steamers on Rice Lake. These would cross the lake to the Otonabee River , providing access to southern Peterborough. Here they could transship via stagecoach to Bridgenorth on Lake Chemong . Locks at Purdy's Mill (today's Lindsay ) and Bobcaygeon would provide access to an extended area including Pigeon Lake , Stony Lake , Sturgeon Lake and Lake Scugog , known collectively as

1330-549: A journey measured in days and weeks, though much more for shorter distances and periods with appropriate rest. Besides, carts need roads. Transport over water is much more efficient and cost-effective for large cargoes. The oldest known canals were irrigation canals, built in Mesopotamia c.  4000 BC , in what is now Iraq . The Indus Valley civilization of ancient India ( c.  3000 BC ) had sophisticated irrigation and storage systems developed, including

1463-653: A meeting in Peterborough on 27 August that demanded the work begin, leading to Baird's arrival on 7 September. As soon as word was out that he had arrived, citizen's groups in the two towns began tit-for-tat exchanges in local newspapers denouncing each other's efforts. Baird's report was submitted on 28 November 1833. It placed the cost of making the Trent navigable to Rice Lake at $ 1,167,236 using 34 locks 134 feet (41 m) long and 34 feet (10 m) wide, along with 17 dams used to raise water levels in various portions of

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1596-581: A rather low gradient for its time. The canal is still in use after renovation. In the Middle Ages , water transport was several times cheaper and faster than transport overland. Overland transport by animal drawn conveyances was used around settled areas, but unimproved roads required pack animal trains, usually of mules to carry any degree of mass, and while a mule could carry an eighth ton, it also needed teamsters to tend it and one man could only tend perhaps five mules, meaning overland bulk transport

1729-413: A series of leaders as they lurched from one political disaster to the next. In spite of repeated promises to carry out Macdonald's last wishes regarding the canal, nothing had been completed by the time another election began to approach. Then there was a flurry of highly visible surveys carried out, and Rogers was asked to complete detailed plans for further construction. On 22 April 1895 a $ 475,000 contract

1862-504: A series of locks with a single hydraulic boat lift, and recommended further study into this option. They also left considerable room for interpretation as to the desirability of completing the works at either end, allowing politicians to pick and chose what sections, if any, they agreed to fund. By the time the Commission filed their report, parliament was out for the 1891 elections , just what Macdonald had hoped would happen by forming

1995-411: A short distance to the west and a major competitor for Coburg's shipping traffic, proposed both a road and a canal. Port Hope's location at the western end of Rice Lake placed them slightly closer to the lake than Coburg, and offered a direct land route to Peterborough around the western tip of the lake while remaining within their Northumberland County . By 1832, Bethune had completed his first plan for

2128-556: A steamboat" when her family used it in late summer 1832. A second steamer of the same design was built in Peterborough, sawn in half, carried overload to Bridgenorth and launched as the Sturgeon on 5 September 1833. Both steamers proved popular; in the less than three months the lakes were open to traffic in its first year of operation, the Sturgeon made 61 trips, delivering 60 barrels of pork and 55 tons of other cargo. A group organized by Bethune met on 1 June 1833 to review tenders for

2261-469: A tannery. Meanwhile, logging companies and farmers were setting up all across central Ontario, using the lakes to ship their products. This left the problem of getting these products to market, which in turn led to a small railway rush with the express intent of connecting to the Back Lake navigation. Through the 1850s and '60s, numerous railways were built to connect at various points. The first to make

2394-459: A uniform altitude. Other, generally later, canals took more direct routes requiring the use of various methods to deal with the change in level. Canals have various features to tackle the problem of water supply. In cases, like the Suez Canal, the canal is open to the sea. Where the canal is not at sea level, a number of approaches have been adopted. Taking water from existing rivers or springs

2527-531: A vote-catching machine?" Although the Conservatives attempted to use the Trent to the advantage once again, the attempt failed in Wilfrid Laurier's strong win in the 1896 election . Having watched the canal hand the Conservatives votes for decades, the new Liberal government immediately cancelled the work. But it was not long before the same political forces that led the Conservatives to support

2660-422: Is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide , making a navigable channel connecting two different drainage basins . Both navigations and canals use engineered structures to improve navigation: Since they cut across drainage divides, canals are more difficult to construct and often need additional improvements, like viaducts and aqueducts to bridge waters over streams and roads, and ways to keep water in

2793-602: Is home to more than a million Canadians. It reaches its highest point of 256.3 metres (841 ft) at Balsam Lake , the highest point to which a vessel can be navigated from sea level in the Great Lakes – Saint Lawrence River drainage basin . The navigable summit of the Monongahela River (part of the Mississippi River drainage basin) at Fairmont, West Virginia is, at 263 metres (863 ft),

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2926-407: Is open for navigation from May until October, while its shore lands and bridges are open year-round. The total length of the waterway is 386 kilometres (240 mi), beginning at Trenton, Ontario, with roughly 32 kilometres (20 mi) of man-made channels. There are 44 locks , including 37 conventional locks, two sets of flight locks , hydraulic lift locks at Peterborough and Kirkfield , and

3059-701: Is presumed, introduced in Italy by Bertola da Novate in the 16th century. This allowed wider gates and also removed the height restriction of guillotine locks . To break out of the limitations caused by river valleys, the first summit level canals were developed with the Grand Canal of China in 581–617 AD whilst in Europe the first, also using single locks, was the Stecknitz Canal in Germany in 1398. In

3192-599: Is rarely less than 30 metres (98 ft) wide. In the 5th century BC, Achaemenid king Xerxes I of Persia ordered the construction of the Xerxes Canal through the base of Mount Athos peninsula, Chalkidiki , northern Greece. It was constructed as part of his preparations for the Second Persian invasion of Greece , a part of the Greco-Persian Wars . It is one of the few monuments left by

3325-418: Is steeper than the desired canal gradient. They are constructed so the falling water's kinetic energy is dissipated in order to prevent it from scouring the bed and sides of the canal. A canal fall is constructed by cut and fill . It may be combined with a regulator, bridge, or other structure to save costs. There are various types of canal falls, based on their shape. One type is the ogee fall, where

3458-452: Is the pound lock , which consists of a chamber within which the water level can be raised or lowered connecting either two pieces of canal at a different level or the canal with a river or the sea. When there is a hill to be climbed, flights of many locks in short succession may be used. Prior to the development of the pound lock in 984 AD in China by Chhaio Wei-Yo and later in Europe in

3591-538: The Château Clique . But it also resulted in a body whose decisions often separated along regional lines. By this time a new force had entered the process, central Ontario lumber barons . They used the many rivers of the province to float logs to mills, notably John Rudolphus Booth 's mill in Ottawa , at that time the largest sawmill in the world. Locks presented a barrier to their rafts , as would any traffic on

3724-521: The Cobourg and Peterborough Railway in 1852, this time planning to bridge over Rice Lake and provide direct access to Peterborough. The line opened on 29 December 1854, but suffered from continual damage due to ice that closed the Rice Lake bridge for much of its history. In spite of these problems, the railway provided the long-needed route south, and was one of the most financially successful routes in

3857-658: The Elbe , Oder and Weser being linked by canals. In post-Roman Britain, the first early modern period canal built appears to have been the Exeter Canal , which was surveyed in 1563, and open in 1566. The oldest canal in the European settlements of North America, technically a mill race built for industrial purposes, is Mother Brook between the Boston, Massachusetts neighbourhoods of Dedham and Hyde Park connecting

3990-543: The Naviglio Grande built between 1127 and 1257 to connect Milan with the river Ticino . The Naviglio Grande is the most important of the lombard " navigli " and the oldest functioning canal in Europe. Later, canals were built in the Netherlands and Flanders to drain the polders and assist transportation of goods and people. Canal building was revived in this age because of commercial expansion from

4123-545: The Phoenix metropolitan area was the most complex in ancient North America. A portion of the ancient canals has been renovated for the Salt River Project and now helps to supply the city's water. The Sinhalese constructed the 87 km (54 mi) Yodha Ela in 459 A.D. as a part of their extensive irrigation network which functioned in a way of a moving reservoir due to its single banking aspect to manage

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4256-528: The River Brue at Northover with Glastonbury Abbey , a distance of about 1.75 kilometres (1,900 yd). Its initial purpose is believed to be the transport of building stone for the abbey, but later it was used for delivering produce, including grain, wine and fish, from the abbey's outlying properties. It remained in use until at least the 14th century, but possibly as late as the mid-16th century. More lasting and of more economic impact were canals like

4389-614: The Songhai Empire of West Africa, several canals were constructed under Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad I between Kabara and Timbuktu in the 15th century. These were used primarily for irrigation and transport. Sunni Ali also attempted to construct a canal from the Niger River to Walata to facilitate conquest of the city but his progress was halted when he went to war with the Mossi Kingdoms . Around 1500–1800

4522-754: The Victoria Railway that met the waterway at Fenelon Falls , the Lindsay, Bobcaygeon and Pontypool Railway that met it at Lindsay and Bobcaygeon, the Toronto and Nipissing Railway that met it at the northern tip of Balsam Lake. These had the advantage of running directly into Toronto, avoiding a switch onto the Grand Trunk Railway needed on the WPP&;L. Work on the canal system remained stagnant until Confederation in 1867. This turned

4655-556: The reservoirs built at Girnar in 3000 BC. This is the first time that such planned civil project had taken place in the ancient world. In Egypt , canals date back at least to the time of Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2283 BC), who ordered a canal built to bypass the cataract on the Nile near Aswan . In ancient China , large canals for river transport were established as far back as the Spring and Autumn period (8th–5th centuries BC),

4788-404: The stratum the canal passes through, it may be necessary to line the cut with some form of watertight material such as clay or concrete. When this is done with clay, it is known as puddling . Canals need to be level, and while small irregularities in the lie of the land can be dealt with through cuttings and embankments, for larger deviations other approaches have been adopted. The most common

4921-471: The 12th century. River navigations were improved progressively by the use of single, or flash locks . Taking boats through these used large amounts of water leading to conflicts with watermill owners and to correct this, the pound or chamber lock first appeared, in the 10th century in China and in Europe in 1373 in Vreeswijk , Netherlands. Another important development was the mitre gate , which was, it

5054-472: The 15th century, either flash locks consisting of a single gate were used or ramps, sometimes equipped with rollers, were used to change the level. Flash locks were only practical where there was plenty of water available. Locks use a lot of water, so builders have adopted other approaches for situations where little water is available. These include boat lifts , such as the Falkirk Wheel , which use

5187-571: The 1880s, adding a number of new locks and pushing the route westward before construction once again halted. For many years after this, the canal was used as a political tool to garner votes from areas along the route, with little construction being carried out. It was not until just before the turn of the century that a number of political changes built up incredible pressure on Wilfrid Laurier 's Liberals and serious work started once again. The canal reached Peterborough and Lake Simcoe in 1904. The final sections were greatly delayed by World War I , with

5320-603: The Back Lakes (today known as "the Kawarthas"). Bethune launched the Pemedash on Rice Lake in 1832, providing daily service between Peterborough and Coburg. The boat was a flat-bottomed design able to travel in shallow waters, more a powered barge than passenger steamer. It had side-wheels and was powered by what one passenger called a "feeble eighteen-horsepower engine". Catharine Parr Traill called it "a poor excuse for

5453-642: The Cobourg railway. At this point the route began to experience pushback from the supporters of the Welland Canal , connecting Lake Ontario to Lake Erie . The Welland was losing money due to competition from the Erie Canal , and the prospect of another competitor to the north was a worrying development. The Ontario Legislature, then in the grip of the Family Compact , had powerful supporters of

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5586-429: The Commission. As the election continued, it appeared it would be a very close fought result, and Macdonald decided to use the Trent to shore up any seats he could. On 3 March he was personally handed a letter by D.R. Murphy, a Conservative organizer in the Trent area, asking for any help he might provide. Macdonald, ill and bedridden, replied with a telegram stating "Trent Valley Canal Commission have reported favourably on

5719-548: The Legislature, on 13 February 1833 money was set aside for a survey, contracting Nicol Hugh Baird of Montreal to carry it out. Baird had worked on several canals and other engineering projects around the world, including the Rideau, and was at that time supervising a new bridge over the foot of the Trent that would replace a ferry service. Although the money had been set aside, nothing further occurred for months. This prompted

5852-563: The Otonabee in Peterborough, and one at Hastings , east of Rice Lake, would allow partial transit down the Trent. Together they would open 170 square miles (440 km) of waterway to continual navigation. Most importantly, the report noted that this would allow the iron ore at Marmora to travel west to Rice Lake where it could travel by train to Lake Ontario. This was approved by the legislature on 28 November 1836, while further proposals to improve various other locations were all ignored. In

5985-590: The Persian Empire in Europe . Greek engineers were also among the first to use canal locks , by which they regulated the water flow in the Ancient Suez Canal as early as the 3rd century BC. There was little experience moving bulk loads by carts, while a pack-horse would [i.e. 'could'] carry only an eighth of a ton. On a soft road a horse might be able to draw 5/8ths of a ton. But if

6118-479: The Province of Canada's government into a federal body, and gave the new province of Ontario's government control over construction. Lacking the power of the federal coffers, they could only afford small projects. Between confederation and 1879 they rebuilt the lock at Lindsay, which had been converted to a timber slide, and built new locks at Young's Point and Rosedale . These enlarged the continuous area served by

6251-785: The Southwest by 1300 CE. Archaeologists working at a major archaeological dig in the 1990s in the Tucson Basin, along the Santa Cruz River, identified a culture and people that may have been the ancestors of the Hohokam. This prehistoric group occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BCE, and in the Early Agricultural period grew corn, lived year-round in sedentary villages, and developed sophisticated irrigation canals. The large-scale Hohokam irrigation network in

6384-455: The St. Lawrence stood to lose considerable traffic if an alternate shipping route was completed, provided free train tickets to everyone involved. The result was a huge crowd of businessmen who descended on Ottawa on 6 April 1897, and began a series of speeches calling for the completion of the Trent. After some time, Laurier himself rose to speak and stated "The government has adopted the completion of

6517-512: The Sydenham-Killaly proposals to expand navigation on the St. Lawrence, which would be able to carry ships. He felt any work on the Trent at this point was a waste of money and was unhappy to be put in charge of the project. His distaste was further increased when his infant daughter Mary died in 1883 while he was surveying the route. He is noted for his "cussedness" and lack of public relations capability, qualities that dogged his time on

6650-581: The Trent Valley route as part of their policy." This was met by thunderous applause. By this time the era of the barge canal as a commercial system was over. The formerly hugely profitable Erie Canal watched traffic dwindle as freight moved to railways, so its operators made it free to use in hopes of maintaining traffic levels and their positive economic effects on the surrounding towns. But this change had little effect, and traffic continued to decline. The chief engineer of New York , who had control over

6783-469: The Trent at this time, having been tasked with producing a survey of the complete route and cost estimates for its completion. After the election, John Page sent Rubidge back to Peterborough to complete this work. Rubidge took the opportunity to return to the worksite and claim he was always in command and had left only for personal reasons. Stark had not yet arrived, and with the work essentially completed by this time, no one seems to have been willing to invest

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6916-405: The Trent. Among the most difficult of the sections completed during this period was the locks at Burleigh Falls; Baird had described the "dreaded iron-bound nature of the rock" which required new tools and techniques to beat. The work was finally undertaken by George Goodwin starting in late 1884, using steam powered drills and shovels. It was during this time that one of the most infamous events in

7049-636: The Trent–Severn Waterway. The desire for a communications route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron had been a topic of discussion as early as 1785, and gained new importance with the opening of the War of the First Coalition in 1793. Had the newly formed United States entered the conflict on the side of their French allies, they could have cut access to the upper great lakes at Detroit or Lake St. Clair . This would have denied waterborne access to

7182-644: The Welland block further progress. William Hamilton Merritt , founder of the Welland Canal Company, was willing to support inland locks and even a private canal of the limited size proposed by Port Hope, but staunchly opposed any western extension. This opposition would frustrate further development for many years. With any hope of government backing clearly out of the question, the Port Hope and Rice Lake Canal Company closed down. Strong support for

7315-532: The area were carried out between 1815 and 1827. Prominent among these was a survey made by Catty in 1819, which concluded that no reasonable alternative to the Trent River was obvious on the eastern end of the route. Unfortunately, its circuitous route ran 67 miles (108 km) to Rice Lake before ending up only 12 miles (19 km) from the shores of Lake Ontario. Further, the Imperial government's interest

7448-477: The area, but his support of the protectionist National Policy won him many others in the area among businesses that were worried about being flooded by cheap US products. The press was filled with comments to the effect that Macdonald had only been interested in the canal as a vote-getting measure; the Peterborough Examiner led the charges, complaining that "Whatever expenditure there had been on

7581-530: The area. The good times came to an end when the Port Hope interests, now known as the Port Hope, Lindsay and Beaverton Railway (but soon to be renamed as the Midland Railway of Canada ), opened the Millbrook Branch that reached Peterborough on 12 May 1858. Among the other routes available were another plank road further west from Whitby to Lake Scugog, which offered access to the waterway via

7714-511: The attempt was the long-planned Cobourg and Rice Lake Railway. Having originally been planned in 1831 and chartered in 1834, the Panic of 1837 and Rebellion later that year upset their plans to the point where the company's charter lapsed in 1840. Next was the Peterborough and Port Hope Railway (P&PH), the competing plan from Port Hope, which had the advantage of being able to loop around

7847-436: The canal pressure with the influx of water. It was also designed as an elongated reservoir passing through traps creating 66 mini catchments as it flows from Kala Wewa to Thissa Wawa . The canal was not designed for the quick conveying of water from Kala Wewa to Thissa Wawa but to create a mass of water between the two reservoirs, which would in turn provided for agriculture and the use of humans and animals. They also achieved

7980-418: The canal to form a dam. They are generally placed in pre-existing grooves in the canal bank. On more modern canals, "guard locks" or gates were sometimes placed to allow a section of the canal to be quickly closed off, either for maintenance, or to prevent a major loss of water due to a canal breach. A canal fall , or canal drop, is a vertical drop in the canal bed. These are built when the natural ground slope

8113-651: The canal, and this was especially disconcerting for the grain trade the Trent Association had pitched. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), then stopping at Fort William , were in the midst of completing a link to the Montreal area, as well as building out a network of shorter links in the southern Ontario area that serviced the lake trade. Another railway rush ensued as the Grand Trunk and Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) bought up similar lines, all with

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8246-537: The canal, stated that "canals as a successful and necessary means of transportation have outlived their usefulness." When a multi-national panel was formed to consider several possible routes to link the upper Great Lakes to the Atlantic, the Trent was not even mentioned. In the case of the Trent, the railways originally intended to service the waterway now provided an even better transport option. The operators of these railways would compete with any commercial traffic on

8379-462: The canal. Where large amounts of goods are loaded or unloaded such as at the end of a canal, a canal basin may be built. This would normally be a section of water wider than the general canal. In some cases, the canal basins contain wharfs and cranes to assist with movement of goods. When a section of the canal needs to be sealed off so it can be drained for maintenance stop planks are frequently used. These consist of planks of wood placed across

8512-469: The channel. There are two broad types of canal: Historically, canals were of immense importance to commerce and the development, growth and vitality of a civilization. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of anthracite coal; by the 1930s the company which built and operated it for over a century ceased operation. The few canals still in operation in our modern age are a fraction of

8645-589: The complete network. Further progress ran afoul of local politics, in particular the fact that the route ran through two counties, Durham and Northumberland . These were represented by a total of three members of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada , each with their own ideas of where the southern end of canal should be built. John Brown was the director of the Port Hope Canal Company, while George Strange Boulton of Cobourg

8778-508: The completion of existing work, as opposed to expansions. It soon became clear that Laurier's government was delaying any further work. Matters changed with the rise of the Liberal's new leadership under the direction of Wilfrid Laurier . Prior to the 1896 election the party had strongly supported free trade with the US, known as "reciprocity", but put this aside for this election and accepted

8911-410: The completion of the scheme. Parliament will be asked next session for a grant for the purpose." Nine of the thirteen seats in the area were won by Conservatives, reversing their losses from the previous election. Macdonald lived only a short time after the election and suffered a series of strokes that led to his death on 6 June 1891. In the aftermath of Macdonald's death, the Conservatives went through

9044-413: The construction of a series of locks on the Back Lakes. However, they received only two tenders, both for the lock at Bobcaygeon. After several additional meetings and a visit to the site, the contract was awarded to Pierce, Dumble and Hoar for a price of $ 8,000. The company's crew arrived on 2 August and began construction immediately. The rest of the season was taken up with basic construction, blasting out

9177-484: The construction, harassing Goodwin and his workers continually with a range of problems, even locking up the canoes of the government engineers so they could not get around the sites. Goodwin's complaints grew in frequency and anger, and finally he demanded that John Page, the engineer in the Department of Canals and Railways overseeing all canal work, visit the site. This request eventually led to Rubidge's removal from

9310-426: The contract was clearly underbid, Pierce, Dumble, and Hoar decided to continue construction using their own funds. This proved disastrous; the lock was set too high in the rock and could not be filled at low water in the summer, and even when water was available it leaked out faster than it filled. It remained useless for four years. Bethune's early efforts inspired others in the area to form plans of their own to build

9443-399: The drop follows an s-shaped curve to create a smooth transition and reduce turbulence . However, this smooth transition does not dissipate the water's kinetic energy, which leads to heavy scouring. As a result, the canal needs to be reinforced with concrete or masonry to protect it from eroding. Another type of canal fall is the vertical fall, which is "simple and economical". These feature

9576-421: The effort to find out what was going on. When Stark did begin to assert some control, he started by asking one of the other government engineers working with Rubidge, Aylmer, to set up a new office in Peterborough. As he left, Aylmer took the opportunity to break into Rubidge's desk and take the now long-overdue survey with him, prompting a break-and-enter charge which Aylmer countered with a libel charge. Another of

9709-407: The final completion of the Trent system. 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 flow under atmospheric pressure , and can be thought of as artificial rivers . In most cases,

9842-614: The first summit level canal to use pound locks in Europe was the Briare Canal connecting the Loire and Seine (1642), followed by the more ambitious Canal du Midi (1683) connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. This included a staircase of 8 locks at Béziers , a 157 metres (515 ft) tunnel, and three major aqueducts. Canal building progressed steadily in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries with three great rivers,

9975-462: The freedom to make deliveries well away from rail lined road beds or ditches in the dirt which could not operate in the winter. The longest extant canal today, the Grand Canal in northern China, still remains in heavy use, especially the portion south of the Yellow River . It stretches from Beijing to Hangzhou at 1,794 kilometres (1,115 miles). Canals are built in one of three ways, or

10108-494: The government engineers, Fuller, ended up in a fist fight with Rubidge over a property dispute, leading to Fuller's conviction on assault and his dismissal from the department. Looking for any reason to cancel further work, or at least delay it, Macdonald inquired about the status of Rubidge's survey. Rubidge promised it would be ready for 20 August, but it never appeared. Stark telegraphed Rubidge on 1 September about it, and Rubidge stated that his fight with Fuller had put it off. It

10241-426: The government of John A. Macdonald was convinced to provide funding to add new locks at Burleigh Falls , Lovesick Lake, Buckhorn and Fenelon Falls . This greatly expanded the navigable route, from Balsam Lake in the west to Lakefield in the east. In 1881, oversight of the expansion was given to Tom Rubidge of Peterborough. Rubidge had already concluded that the Trent system was essentially useless in comparison to

10374-532: The government. The newly merged Province of Canada had a single parliament with special rules intended to balance the power of the French and English speaking colonies. As part of the formation of the new Province, the former Inland Water Commission was moved to the new government's Board of Works. The new government broke the power of the Family Compact, and reduced the influence of its French counterpart,

10507-530: The high-tariff, protectionist National Policy . To support industry, they proposed a wide variety of public works, especially those that took place in Conservative ridings that were subject to swaying. This was the case for all of the Ontario counties involved in the Trent system, and it became a centrepiece of the Ontario strategy. With their election win, in spite of losing the popular vote, the party began

10640-782: The higher waters of the Charles River and the mouth of the Neponset River and the sea. It was constructed in 1639 to provide water power for mills. In Russia, the Volga–Baltic Waterway , a nationwide canal system connecting the Baltic Sea and Caspian Sea via the Neva and Volga rivers, was opened in 1718. Balsam Lake (Ontario) Balsam Lake is 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) long and averages 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) wide, though its actual width varies due to

10773-844: The highest point in North America (the summit of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal at its highest point of 406 metres (1,332 ft) is higher still). The Trent–Severn Waterway is managed by Parks Canada under the statutory authority of the Historic Canals Regulations (which outline and delegate the responsibilities for navigation, resource protection, dredge and fill operations, the operation of boater campgrounds, etc.). The navigation corridor includes over 4,500 kilometres (2,796 mi) of shoreline and over 500 square kilometres (193 sq mi) of water. More than 125 000 private and commercial properties abut

10906-457: The hopes of gaining some part of the rapidly growing grain trade. At the time, almost all of these routes ran through Toronto. When Laurier made his announcement, the possibility that the Trent would provide any sort of reasonable shipping route in lieu of railways or a canal able to carry oceangoing ships was immediately attacked by business interests in Toronto. When the first $ 600,000 contract

11039-480: The important British trading post at Michilimackinac . To solve this problem, John Graves Simcoe , Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada , began construction of Yonge Street and the Penetanguishene Road to provide an overland portage route to Georgian Bay via Lake Simcoe that would bypass these choke points. Construction of Yonge began in 1794, reaching today's Holland Landing in 1796. However,

11172-590: The inland routes remained among the populace, and to appease these interests the government formed the Inland Water Commission to study the system. As an interim measure, on 3 March 1836 they submitted a new proposal for four locks at a total cost of $ 80,000. One of these would replace the nonfunctional lock at Bobcaygeon, one in Purdy's Mills (Lindsay) would allow transit to Lake Scugog, one at Whitla's Rapids (Scott's Mills) would allow passage further up

11305-645: The introduction of motor boats found the Trent–Severn perfectly positioned as a pleasure boating route, and today it is one of Ontario's major tourist attractions. Its passage through cottage country , both Muskoka in the west and the Kawarthas in the east, draws thousands of visitors every year. It also forms a major portion of the Great Loop . Today it is officially organized as a National Historic Site of Canada linear park operated by Parks Canada It

11438-561: The legislature would be uninterested in such a proposal, he also outlined an alternative using a mix of water and rail transit, using specially designed barges that could carry a train of cars that would then be switched onto short sections of railway to bypass the trickier sections of the route. The idea was not unlike modern containerized shipping . Using this method, Baird believed that the price would be cut by about $ 1.5 million, and be completed in only three years. Perhaps believing this suggestion might be accepted, Baird also purchased stock in

11571-528: The link to Trenton opening in 1918, followed by the link to Georgian Bay in early 1920. The first complete transit of the waterway was made in July of that year. By the time the route was completed, its usefulness as a commercial waterway was over; ships plying the Great Lakes had grown much larger than the canal could handle, and the railways that had connected to the canal now took most of its freight. But

11704-549: The load were carried by a barge on a waterway, then up to 30 tons could be drawn by the same horse. — technology historian Ronald W. Clark referring to transport realities before the industrial revolution and the Canal age . Hohokam was a society in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona , United States, and Sonora , Mexico. Their irrigation systems supported the largest population in

11837-599: The lock at Lindsay. This was the closest point on the network to Toronto, and the town of Prince Albert at its midpoint became the largest grain trading site in Upper Canada. This route, today known as Brock Street in Whitby, was rendered superfluous by the Whitby, Port Perry and Lindsay Railway (WPP&L), which ran beside it and offered far faster service to Toronto. Other routes connected to points further north, including

11970-533: The lock from the limestone with blackpowder . When the weather turned cold on 14 November the lock was nowhere near complete, and the contract was extended. By the time the land thawed in the spring, Bethune was insolvent due to bookkeeping irregularities at his branch of the Bank of Upper Canada in Coburg, likely due to his use of some of these funds for the transport scheme. His steamers were sold off to new owners. In spite of there being no money from Bethune, and that

12103-480: The longest canal in the world today and the oldest extant one. It is 1,794 kilometres (1,115 mi) long and was built to carry the Emperor Yang Guang between Zhuodu ( Beijing ) and Yuhang ( Hangzhou ). The project began in 605 and was completed in 609, although much of the work combined older canals, the oldest section of the canal existing since at least 486 BC. Even in its narrowest urban sections it

12236-534: The longest one of that period being the Hong Gou (Canal of the Wild Geese), which according to the ancient historian Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei. The Caoyun System of canals was essential for imperial taxation, which was largely assessed in kind and involved enormous shipments of rice and other grains. By far the longest canal was the Grand Canal of China , still

12369-457: The many immigrants arriving in the area. They showed little interest in the rest of the route, and agreed to allow the rest of the surveyed lock locations to be turned into timber slides . With the completion of the four locks, the Back Lakes were now open to navigation for most of the year. Newly arriving settlers in the area expanded the types of products available. By the 1850s, Peterborough had gristmills, sawmills, carding and fulling mills and

12502-542: The many large bays that carve its shoreline; the total area is 48 square kilometres (19 sq mi) and the watershed area is 115 square kilometres (44 sq mi). The primary inflows are the Gull River at the north and the Staples River at the southwest. The lake is the highest point of the Trent–Severn Waterway at 256.3 metres (841 ft); from here, the waterway descends to Georgian Bay in

12635-642: The midst of construction, in 1837 the Upper Canada Rebellion broke out. Although quickly suppressed, the Rebellions of 1837 served to worry the Imperial government enough to appoint John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham to fix the problems. In spite of holding the position of Governor General for only a brief period before resigning, his Report on the Affairs of British North America was implemented in large part and caused sweeping changes to

12768-501: The most ambitious of them all, the 202 kilometres (126 mi)-long Rideau Canal from today's Ottawa to Kingston . Together, they connected Montreal, Ottawa and Lake Ontario, bypassing significant hazards along the Saint Lawrence River and long stretches of open water on Lake Ontario. The need for a similar route bypassing Yonge Street and providing access to the upper lakes remained an issue, and several surveys in

12901-628: The navigation corridor of the Trent–Severn Waterway. The Trent–Severn Waterway also has regulatory responsibility and authority under the Dominion Water Power Act for the 18 hydroelectric generating facilities located along its route. Samuel de Champlain was the first European to travel the network of inland waters from Georgian Bay to the Bay of Quinte with the Hurons in 1615. It was this same route that would later be canalized and become

13034-462: The new Lieutenant Governor, Sir John Colborne , arranged a trip to visit the area. His six-day tour covered most of the lakes and rivers in the system, including the Talbot River that connected the Back Lakes to Lake Simcoe. On his return, taking Bethune's route using the Pemedash and then stage to York , he reported that he was delighted by his trip. Interpreted as support for further work on

13167-436: The next election. A series of interviews were carried out and questionnaires sent which garnered little response, which the Commission took as evidence that there was little interest in the topic. In 1890 an interim report caused Macdonald to suggest that "Some further enquiry is necessary". One of the few positive results was a measure of the water supply by the new chief engineer of the Trent, Richard Rogers, that suggested there

13300-508: The northwest, and to Lake Ontario in the southeast. It is the highest point to which a vessel can be navigated from sea level in the Great Lakes - Saint Lawrence River drainage basin . The main outflow, at the east, is the Rosedale River and Trent Canal leading to Cameron Lake . The village of Coboconk is located on the north side of the lake. Balsam Lake Provincial Park and Indian Point Provincial Park are located on

13433-506: The numbers that once fueled and enabled economic growth, indeed were practically a prerequisite to further urbanization and industrialization. For the movement of bulk raw materials such as coal and ores are difficult and marginally affordable without water transport. Such raw materials fueled the industrial developments and new metallurgy resulting of the spiral of increasing mechanization during 17th–20th century, leading to new research disciplines, new industries and economies of scale, raising

13566-476: The odd collection of railway links that all travelled through Toronto. But this argument backfired; Blair agreed a canal was needed, but argued instead for a new system along the St. Lawrence. Laurier himself strongly supported railways, especially the Grand Trunk Railway . Once again the Association swung into action, bringing over 270 delegates to a meeting on the issue in Ottawa. The Grand Trunk, whose line along

13699-405: The oversight position and his replacement by David Stark, at that time the superintendent of Ottawa River canal projects. Construction was finally completed in 1887, and the first boat passed through the entire section on 26 October. The federal elections in early 1887 led to Macdonald winning a solid majority in spite of promising nothing to the canal. This cost the Conservatives several seats in

13832-455: The plan soon found their effect on the Liberals as well, and yet another meeting with the Trent Association and a subsequent visit by George Albert Blair, the newly appointed Minister of Canals and Railways. The Association's trump card was the argument that the canal could be a significant shipping route for grain from western Canada, which at that time was having trouble moving eastward due to

13965-604: The pre-railroad days of the industrial revolution, water transport was the gold standard of fast transportation. The first artificial canal in Western Europe was the Fossa Carolina built at the end of the 8th century under personal supervision of Charlemagne . In Britain, the Glastonbury Canal   is believed to be the first post-Roman canal and was built in the middle of the 10th century to link

14098-480: The project, concluding that the route would have too many locks to allow rapid movement for military purposes. They decided that the locks under construction would be completed, but the rest could be turned into timber slides . This left the completed inland section with no outlet, which business interests addressed by connecting to the route with a number of new toll roads , plank roads , and later, railways . John A. Macdonald 's government restarted construction in

14231-461: The rivers, so they were opposed to any further work on the system. Examining the project, the Board of Works concluded that a route with as many locks as Baird had proposed would take so long to transit that it would not be useful militarily, and thus of little interest to the new federalist government. They agreed to continue construction of the four locks contracted in 1836, largely as a way to employ

14364-433: The road was not passable for much of its length until 1816, and the entire route to Georgian Bay some time after that. The route was used for its original military purpose sparingly during the War of 1812 , primarily to ship supplies to a naval depot built at Holland Landing. Its rough location is marked today by a large anchor that was being shipped from Chatham, England to Wasaga Beach (then known as Schooner Town), but

14497-495: The route. He predicted it would take four years to complete. The report went on in great length to justify the expense, saying it would pay for itself in tolls, estimated to be $ 30,000 a year from timber shipments alone. On 6 March 1834, Robert Maigny submitted his estimates for the Port Hope Canal, using 34 locks 70 feet (21 m) by 14 feet (4.3 m) at a total cost of $ 507,130. At this point further work ended while

14630-475: The scheme is properly chargeable to the capital (political) account and this is the explanation of all the delay and trifling with this important work." With every delay the canal became more important to the locals, prompting one long-time Macdonald supporter, Reverend J. Logan, to be quoted saying "Henceforth I have only one politic and that is the Trent Valley Canal." Rubidge was still involved in

14763-480: The standard of living for any industrialized society. Most ship canals today primarily service bulk cargo and large ship transportation industries, whereas the once critical smaller inland waterways conceived and engineered as boat and barge canals have largely been supplanted and filled in, abandoned and left to deteriorate, or kept in service and staffed by state employees, where dams and locks are maintained for flood control or pleasure boating. Their replacement

14896-438: The system's history took place; at 9:45 a.m. on 4 September 1885 James Simmons and George Morton were hauling a load of dynamite from Tweed to Burleigh Falls when it exploded, leaving behind a 100 foot (30 m) wide crater and nothing but bits of horse and man. The site became a brief tourist attraction. Construction was beset by arguments between Rubidge and the construction team led by Goodwin. From late 1886, Rubidge

15029-476: The system, this led to a petition calling for a route to connect Lake Simcoe with Rice Lake "by canal or otherwise". Baird was once again hired to survey this western section of the waterway. Baird's new report was filed in September 1835, calling for another 32 locks and 13 dams, at a price of $ 1,310,340. Including the work on the Trent, this brought the price of the system as a whole to $ 2,477,575. Knowing that

15162-573: The valley of the River Dee . Another option for dealing with hills is to tunnel through them. An example of this approach is the Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal . Tunnels are only practical for smaller canals. Some canals attempted to keep changes in level down to a minimum. These canals known as contour canals would take longer, winding routes, along which the land was

15295-557: The waterway, but still lacked any outlet to the major bodies of water. Having watched work on the system stagnate for years, in September 1879 a group of Conservative politicians formed the Trent Valley Canal Association to agitate for further work. They were soon joined by Liberals and neutral parties, eventually coming to represent almost every riding from Trenton to Midland. The Toronto Tribune noted that "Their activity shows an amount of energy that betokens

15428-562: The western edge of Rice Lake to produce an all-land route directly to Peterborough. This so worried Cobourg interests that they hired Baird to plan a road route, and opened the Cobourg Plank Road in 1846. This stymied the P&;PH, who decided to reroute their line westward to Beaverton on Lake Simcoe. The numerous delays meant that there was still no rail connection to the waterway in 1850. The original Cobourg group reorganized as

15561-400: The work already underway, bringing the total for the entire waterway to $ 9,984,500. This compares with Baird's original estimate of $ 2.5 million, a number that Stark had personally backed in 1880. This prompted Stark to send in his own estimate, returning to the original Severn route in the west, and calculated the new total to be only $ 3 million. This latest controversy was just what Macdonald

15694-404: The world". The canal was surveyed as a military route, but the first lock was built in 1833 as a commercial venture. This connected a number of lakes and rivers near the centre of the waterway, opening a large area to navigation by steamship . The government had begun construction of three additional locks when the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 broke out. This led the government to re-examine

15827-441: Was a million times more water available than would be needed for the entire route to lock 100 times a day for the 200-day navigation period. The Commission handed in its final report on 17 December 1890. They accepted Rogers' calculation of the amount of water available and generally agreed that the routes were possible and even desirable. They also suggested that some of the more complex areas could be greatly simplified by replacing

15960-590: Was abandoned in Holland Landing when the war ended. The lack of convenient access to the upper lakes demonstrated by the war led to new calls for inland waterways for military use, and led to the construction of a number of canals to provide rapid access to the Upper Canada area. These included canals at Grenville , Chute-à-Blondeau and Carillon Canals , all along the Ottawa River, as well as

16093-466: Was also expensive, as men expect compensation in the form of wages, room and board. This was because long-haul roads were unpaved, more often than not too narrow for carts, much less wagons, and in poor condition, wending their way through forests, marshy or muddy quagmires as often as unimproved but dry footing. In that era, as today, greater cargoes, especially bulk goods and raw materials , could be transported by ship far more economically than by land; in

16226-458: Was an option in some cases, sometimes supplemented by other methods to deal with seasonal variations in flow. Where such sources were unavailable, reservoirs  – either separate from the canal or built into its course – and back pumping were used to provide the required water. In other cases, water pumped from mines was used to feed the canal. In certain cases, extensive "feeder canals" were built to bring water from sources located far from

16359-499: Was announced on 31 May 1898, Edmund Osler , member for Toronto West and a director of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), was the first to oppose it in parliament, stating that the government must have "money to burn." To the great amusement of the Liberals, other Conservatives from the Trent area then began arguing with Osler. Nevertheless, the government agreed to use the funds released in that budget solely for

16492-540: Was busy forming the Cobourg and Rice Lake Railway with Bethune. Each favoured their own route in Durham, over the complaints of those living in Northumberland who wanted the route to follow the Trent through their county. Boulton hatched a plan to kill the Trent route by ordering a complete survey of the river, hoping the cost of canalizing it would be far greater than building his railway. After several debates in

16625-516: Was finally delivered in 15 November. The report closely followed Baird's plans completed decades earlier, changing only its ultimate outlet on the west, following the North River to Waubaushene . He placed the cost at $ 8,684,650, including another 71 locks in addition to the 12 already built or nearing completion, as well as 58.7 miles (94.5 km) of dug canal. Page added another $ 1.1 million in ancillary charges like land claims and completion of

16758-470: Was gradual, beginning first in the United States in the mid-1850s where canal shipping was first augmented by, then began being replaced by using much faster , less geographically constrained & limited, and generally cheaper to maintain railways . By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to economically compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal

16891-424: Was increasingly diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil, and growth of coal shipments leveled off. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, the last small U.S. barge canals saw a steady decline in cargo ton-miles alongside many railways, the flexibility and steep slope climbing capability of lorries taking over cargo hauling increasingly as road networks were improved, and which also had

17024-426: Was once used to describe linear features seen on the surface of Mars , Martian canals , an optical illusion. A navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river. A vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal

17157-417: Was signed for a canal between Balsam Lake and Kirkfield. A second followed on 27 August for the first section from Lakefield to Peterborough. The Peterborough Examiner was not amused, asking, "Why have five years, singularly coincident with the general election, been allowed to elapse between the spurts of activity that mark the survey and construction of portions of the canal? Why ... has it been degraded into

17290-445: Was skeptical that the Trent connection would ever be built, but he felt that the inland sections north of Peterborough still offered considerable commercial prospects. The problem of connecting to Lake Ontario could be solved by other means. Bethune, a major player in local politics, led efforts to build a railway from Coburg, which would either have to route around Rice Lake through other counties, or build directly over it. Port Hope ,

17423-422: Was tempered by the cost of the Rideau, originally budgeted at $ 2,370,000 but eventually costing more than $ 4 million by the time it opened in 1832. Several attempts to raise the funds for the Trent system using local sources, including a proposed lottery , all failed and the plans remained dormant. James Gray Bethune was a businessman in the port town of Cobourg with a steamship company working Lake Ontario. He

17556-412: Was under extreme pressure from the press and the politicians along the line, and he became increasingly paranoid, suspicious of everyone involved in the project for their real or imagined attempts to have him removed. He took his anger out on the project as a whole, and especially Goodwin, who began to complain to Rubidge's superiors in Ottawa. Rubidge responded by appointing two of his helpers to watch over

17689-493: Was waiting for. Pointing out the huge differences in the two estimates, on 8 October 1887 he formed the Trent Valley Canal Commission to study the issue. This was immediately denounced as a measure "to give them an opportunity to get out of the work." This is precisely what happened; the first meeting of the Commission was not scheduled until 1 April 1888, and the final report was not expected until after

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