Trent–Severn Waterway

The Trent–Severn Waterway is a Canadian canal system formerly used for industrial and transportation purposes and now for recreational and tourism purposes, connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to the Georgian Bay portion of Lake Huron at Port Severn. Its major natural waterways include the Trent River, Otonabee River, the Kawartha lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching and the Severn River.

It traverses Southern Ontario's "cottage country", where recreational properties are the primary industry along the waterway. It is open for navigation from May until October.

The Waterway is a National Historic Site of Canada, administered by Parks Canada.^[1][2]

Geography

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 45 locks, including 36 conventional locks, two sets of flight locks, hydraulic lift locks at Peterborough and Kirkfield, and 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 is home to more than a million Canadians.

It reaches its highest point of 256.3 metres (840 ft 11 in) 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 (862 ft 10 in), the highest point in North America, and the summit of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal at its highest point of 406 metres (1,332 ft 0 in)^[3] 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 386-kilometre navigation corridor includes over 4,500 kilometres (2,796 mi) of shoreline and over 500 square kilometres (193 sq mi) of water. More than 125000 private and commercial properties abut 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.

A six-member independent panel was appointed to evaluate the waterway's future in May 2007. The panel members heard from more than one thousand people in more than thirty meetings in sixteen communities along the waterway. The panel submitted their report to the Federal Minister of the Environment in April 2008.

History

Samuel 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. A route that would later be canalized and named the Trent-Severn Waterway.

In the mid-19th century,the river systems of Central Ontario were used by lumber barons to easily transport newly felled trees to sawmills closer to market. Many of the logging companies opposed the building of locks, for these would interfere with their business interests. The logging companies did, however, help to create thriving communities such as Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls, all of which helped to delay the building of the lock system.

Construction began in the Kawartha Lakes region in 1833 with the Lock at Bobcaygeon marking its beginning. It took over 87 years to complete the waterway with two "temporary" marine railways installed at Big Chute and Swift Rapids. Only by 1920 could a boat travel the whole route. Some argue that the canal has not been finished. Although the Swift Rapids Marine Railway was replaced by the intended conventional lock installed in 1965, the Big Chute Marine Railway is still in operation, with early plans for a lock to replace it being abandoned. Lock 45 at Port Severn was completed in a hurry under political pressure to complete the system and is undersized to this day in comparison to the length and width of the other conventional lock stations on the system. A branch of the canal constructed to Newmarket, Ontario was abandoned during construction and never completed. An alternate route to Georgian Bay via Kempenfelt Bay and the Nottawasaga River exiting at Wasaga Beach was also briefly contemplated as an alternate to the Severn River route that was finally adopted. It was also contemplated that the canal would join to Georgian Bay via Honey Harbour with a lock between Little Go Home Bay and Baxter Lake

The slow progress was noticed by the Canadian government. In 1878 Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald tried to speed up progress by making it government policy to ensure that the system would be completed. To realize some of the economic benefits of a complete canal system, the Government of Ontario built some of the locks before the Federal government resumed construction. Despite this, the canal entered a period of slow growth between 1875 and 1900. Travel was blocked beyond Balsam Lake until the opening of the Kirkfield Lift Lock in 1907.

The lock system aided the development of central Ontario, allowing a quick and efficient flow of goods to and from the major trading centres along Lake Ontario. The rugged, rough terrain of this area of the province made travel by land extremely difficult and time-consuming.

When the canal was finally completed, it failed to have a major impact on the economy of the regions it was built to serve. By the time it was completed its design had been made obsolete by larger boats: it had been designed for boats too small to be commercially viable. In the years that it was under construction, railways had further developed their networks and improved service, which influenced settlement patterns.

The waterway became completely obsolete for commercial purposes when the present day Welland Canal was completed in 1932. The Welland Canal could handle ships large enough to sail across the ocean, though cargo was generally transferred to or from larger ocean-going vessels at Montreal.

The Trent-Severn system is still in service. It is maintained and operated by the national park service, Parks Canada, and now is used for tourism and by recreational boaters. There is a cruise line that operates the ship Kawartha Voyageur,^[4] as well as houseboat rental firms.^[5]

List of locks

Notes

See also

• Ottawa River Waterway – Northeastern Ontario waterway
• Rideau Canal – Eastern Ontario waterway
• Welland Canal – Southern Ontario waterway
• Canal lock
• Boat lift

References

External links

• Panel on the Future of the Trent-Severn Waterway
• Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site of Canada (Parks Canada)
• TrentSevern.com