Sault Ste. Marie Ship Canals.
To accommodate the vast volume of traffic emanating from Lake Superior ports, magnificent canals have been constructed on either side of the St. Mary River, which connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. These works, the most remarkable of their kind in existence, have reached their present dimension by a succession of enlargements and a large outlay of money. The first canal on the western or American side of the river was constructed by a joint stock company formed in 1853, who undertook to construct it for the State of Michigan upon receiving therefore a grant of 750,000 acres of land. The work was completed in 1855, and from that date the commerce of Lake Superior may be said to have had any appreciable existence. The opening of the canal was, as it were, the opening of a sluice-gate through which a flood of commerce was soon to roll.
The first canal cost about $1,000,000. It was a little over a mile in length. Its width at the water line was 100 feet, and its depth 12 feet. There were two locks, each 350 feet long and 70 feet wide. The growth of traffic and the increase in the size of the lake vessels soon rendered it apparent that the canal must be enlarged. In 1870 the United States Government made its first appropriation for deepening the canal to 16 feet and increasing its lockage. A new lock was built, 550 feet in length by 80 feet in width, and 18 feet lift, at a cost of $2,404,124.33. The work was completed in 1881. Its opening was followed by an enormous increase of commerce—so much so that it soon became quite inadequate to the traffic. A still further enlargement was decided upon, and was completed in 1896, at a cost of about $5,000,000. The new lock occupies the site of the two old locks of 1855, and is 800 feet long, 100 feet wide, and has 21 feet depth of water on the sill. It is officially known as the St. Mary’s Falls Canal.
So long ago as the close of last century the North-West Fur Company had constructed a rude canal on the Canadian side, with locks, adapted for the passage of loaded canoes without breaking bulk. Though late of construction, a ship canal had long been in contemplation by the Canadian Government, and the time came when, owing to the increase of traffic, it could no longer be delayed. This great work was completed and opened for traffic on September 9th, 1895, at a cost of some $3,500,000. The Canadian lock is 900 feet long, 60 feet wide, 20 feet 3 inches depth of water on the sill, and 18 feet lift, affording room for three large vessels at one time. The length of the canal proper, between the extreme ends of the entrance piers, is only 5,967 feet, but including the excavated channels of approach it is about 18,100 feet. The American canal is a little over a mile in length. The locks of both are unsurpassed for their size and solidity, as well as for the completeness of their mechanical appliances.
An official report, compiled by the Chief Engineer of the St. Mary’s Falls Canal (United States), contains a detailed statement of the commerce of that canal for each year, from 1855 to 1895, and goes far to substantiate what has already been said as to the magnitude of the lakes’ commerce. The number of vessels that passed through in 1895 was 17,956, with a registered tonnage of 16,806,781 tons. The number of sailing vessels was 4,790; of steamers, 12,495; and of unregistered craft, 671. The number of passengers conveyed from lake to lake was 31,656. As to the cargoes of the vessels, these are a few of the chief items: 2,574,362 net tons of coal; 8,902,302 barrels of flour; 46,218,250 bushels of wheat; 8,328,694 bushels of other grain; 107,452 tons of copper; 8,062,209 tons of iron ore; 740,700,000 feet of sawed lumber; 100,337 tons of manufactured and pig iron; 269,919 barrels of salt—in all, 15,062,580 net tons of freight. The freight traffic of the St. Mary’s Canal, in seven months of 1895, was more than twice that of the Suez Canal, which is open all the year. During the year 1897 it was much greater than in any previous year, the registered tonnage being 17,619,933, the tons of freight 18,218,411, and the number of passengers 40,213.
ST. MARY’S FALLS SHIP CANAL OF 1881,
STATE OF MICHIGAN, U. S. A.
The gradual development of steam navigation on Lake Superior is shown in a table of parallel columns, extending over thirty years. In 1864 the sailing vessels that used the canal were three times as numerous as the steamers; but in 1895 the steamers were three times as numerous as the sailing vessels, and they had increased enormously in tonnage. The number of sailing vessels built on the Great Lakes in 1896 was nineteen; in that year there were built seventy-five steamers, aggregating 75,743 tons register, and of these thirty-five were built of steel, with a combined tonnage of 63,589 tons. The principal ship-building yards on the Upper Lakes are at Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Bay City, Milwaukee, Chicago and Superior. At most of these points there are plants for the construction of iron and steel vessels. It is said that Cleveland is the largest ship-building port, and also the largest iron ore market in the United States.
The transportation of iron ore, it will be noticed, forms a large element in the commerce of Lake Superior. Not only is the ore found in great abundance in that region, but it is the best in quality and the most in demand of any in the United States. Over 100,000,000 tons of this ore have been mined in the lake region within the last forty years. Owing to its great bulk and weight it is nearly all carried by water; the estimated capital engaged in mining and transporting the ore to the 120 furnaces in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Buffalo and Chicago is about $234,000,000.[53] But for the number and the size of the steamers thus employed, and the facilities now in use for loading and unloading them, the trade could not exist. The largest vessels in the iron ore trade are regularly loaded in three or four hours; 2,500 tons of ore have been loaded into a vessel of that capacity in an hour and three-quarters.[54]