Trent–Severn Waterway

Trent–Severn Waterway
Gateway to the Trent-Severn Waterway
Location	Ontario, Canada
Governing body	Parks Canada
Website	Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site (Parks Canada)
National Historic Site of Canada

Trent-Severn Waterway map

Legend Georgian Bay  Highway 400 Port Severn swing bridge 45Port Severn 387.1 44Big Chute Marine Railway 374.1 43Swift Rapids 361.2 Hamlet swing bridge 42Couchiching 337.8 CNR swing bridge  Highway 11 Lake Couchiching  Highway 12 Lake Simcoe Lakeshore Rd swing bridge  Highway 12 41Gamebridge 290.9 40Thorah 289.8 39Portage 289.1 38Talbot 286.5 37Bolsover 284.9 Boundary Rd swing bridge Bolsover swing bridge 36Kirkfield Lift Lock 387.1 Lake Huron ¦ Lake Ontario 35Rosedale 252.9 Balsam Lake Cameron Lake 34Fenelon Falls 247.2 Lake Scugog 33Lindsay 251.6 Sturgeon Lake 32Bobcaygeon 222.4 Bobcaygeon swing bridge Pigeon Lake Buckhorn Lake 31Buckhorn 194.2 30Lovesick 184.7 28Burleigh Falls 181.8 Lock #28 foot bridge  Highway 28 27Young's Point 168.1 26Lakefield 158.9 25Sawer Creek 156.6 24Douro 155.1 23Otonabee 152.6 22Nassau Mills 151.7 Trent University foot bridge CNR swing bridge 21Peterborough Lift Lock 145.0 CPR swing bridge Maria St bridge 20Ashburnham 144.1 CNR swing bridge 19Scotts Mills 142.8   Highway 7 / Highway 115 Rice Lake Hastings swing bridge 18Hastings 82.3 16/17Healey Falls 58.8 Healey Falls swing bridge 15Healey Falls 58.2 14Crowe Bay 54.2 13Campbellford 51.8 Ranney Falls swing bridge 11/12Ranney Falls 47.8 10Hagues Reach 45.0 9Meyers 42.5 8Percy Reach 40.7 CNR swing bridge Glen Ross swing bridge 7Glen Ross 22.2 6Frankford 11.7 5Trent 10.3 4Batawa 8.3 3Glen Miller 6.2 2Sidney 3.9  Highway 401 1Trenton 2.9 CNR swing bridge Bay of Quinte

The Trent–Severn Waterway is a 386 kilometres (240 mi)-long canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to 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. Its scenic, meandering route has been called "one of the finest interconnected systems of navigation in the world".^[1]

The canal was originally 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 center of the waterway, opening a large area to navigation by steamship. Construction of three additional locks by the government was underway when the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 broke out. This led the government to reexamine 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.

The formation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867 led to interest in completing the route. John A. Macdonald's government restarted construction, adding a number of new locks and pushing the route westward. The completion of the Murray Canal in 1890 provided additional impetus to complete the route east to Trenton. Wilfrid Laurier made the canal's completion a major plank of the 1896 elections that brought the Liberals to power. His enlarged Department of Railways and Canals continued work both east and west, reaching both Peterborough and Lake Simcoe in 1904. The final sections were greatly delayed by World War I, with 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 use as a commercial waterway was over; ships plying the Great Lakes had grown much larger than the canal could handle, and the railways that originally connected to the canal now took most of its freight. But the introduction of motor boats led to the Trent–Severn's emergence as a pleasure boating route, and today it is one of Ontario's major tourist attractions. Its passage through cottage country, both the Muskokas in the west and the Kawarthas in the east, makes it perfectly positioned as a cruising route, drawing 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^[2][3][4] It is open for navigation from May until October, while its shore lands and bridges are open year-round.

Geography

A map of the Trent-Severn Waterway as it appeared in 1918, just prior to its completion. The planned route still runs through Honey Harbour when this was prepared. The abandoned Newmarket Canal is can be seen at the southern tip of Lake Simcoe.

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)^[5] 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 kilometres (240 mi) 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

Lock One on the Trent-Severn Waterway

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. It was this same route that would later be canalized and become the Trent–Severn Waterway.^[6]

Military origins

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 the important British trading post at Michilimackinac.^[7]

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, the road was not passible for much of its length until 1816, and the entire route to Georgian Bay some time after that.^[7] The route was used for its original military purpose only once; during the War of 1812 a large anchor was shipped from Kingston to be fit to a frigate being constructed at Penetanguishene. The anchor had made it to the end of Young Street when the war ended, and remains there to this day.

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 the most ambitious of them all, the 202 kilometres (126 mi)-long Rideau Canal from today's Ottawa to Kingston.^[8] Together, they connected Montreal, Ottawa and Lake Ontario, bypassing significant hazards along the Saint Lawrence River.

The need for a similar route bypassing Young Street and providing access to the upper Lakes remained an issue, and several surveys in 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, which was only 12 miles (19 km) from the shores of Lake Ontario. Further, the Imperial government's interest 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.^[9]

Bethune's lock

James Gray Bethune, a businessman in the port town of Coburg with a steamship company working Lake Ontario, 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. Port Hope, a short distance to the west and a major competitor for Coburg's shipping traffic, proposed both a road and a canal. Their location closer to Rice Lake was an advantage, as well as offering a direct route to Peterborough around the tip of the lake.^[10]

By 1832, Bethune had completed his first plan for a canal 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 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 the Back Lakes (today known as "the Kawarthas").^[11]

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".^[12] Catharine Parr Traill called it "a poor excuse for a steamboat" when her family used it in late summer 1832.^[12] 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.^[11]

A group organized by Bethune met on 1 June 1833 to review tenders for the construction of a series of locks on the Back Lakes. However, they received only two tenders, both for the lock at Bobcageon. After several additional meetings and traveling 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 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.^[13]

By the time the land thawed in the spring, Bethune was insolvent due to bookkeeping problems 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.^[13] His steamers were sold off to new owners.^[12] In spite of there being no money from Bethune, and that the contract was clearly underbid, Pierce, Dumble and Hoar decided to continue construction using their own funds.^[14] 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 it faster than it filled. It remained useless for four years.^[13]

Baird's survey

Baird would conduct most of the important surveys on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

Bethune's early efforts inspired others in the area to form plans of their own to build the complete network. Further progress ran afoul of local politics, in particular the fact that the route ran through two counties, Durham and Northumberland, represented by a total of three members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, 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 was busy forming the Cobourg and Rice Lake Railway with Bethune. Each favored their own route in Durham, over the complaints of those living in Northumberland who wanted the route to follow the Trent through their county.^[15]

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 his railway. After several debates in 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 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, a series of citizen's groups began tit-for-tat exchanges in local newspapers denouncing each other's efforts.^[16]

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 and 17 dams used to raise water levels in various portions of 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.^[17] 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.^[17]

Huron link, expansion

At this point further work ended while 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.^[18] Interpreted as support for further work on 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.^[18]

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 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 switch 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.^[19] Perhaps believing this suggestion might be accepted, Baird also purchased stock in the Cobourg railway.^[20]

At this point, however, 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 Legislation, then in the grip of the Family Compact, had powerful supporters of 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 the next 70 years. With any hope of government backing clearly out of the question, the Port Hope and Rice Lake Canal Company closed down.^[21]

Strong support for 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.^[2] One of these would replace the nonfunctional lock at Bobcageon, 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 the in 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 km²) 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.^[22]

Hiatus

In 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 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.^[23]

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, the Château Clique. But it also resulted in a body who's 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.^[24] Locks presented a barrier to their rafts, as would any traffic on 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 agreed to in 1836, largely as a way to employ 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.^[2]

Road and railway connections

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 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.^[25]

The first to do so 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 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 to Midland, providing a bypass for the entire canal system.^[25]

The numerous delays meant that there was still no rail connection to the waterway in 1850. The original Cobourg group reorganized as 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 the area.^[25] 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 the city on 12 May 1858.^[25]

Among the other routes available were another plank road further west from Whitby to Lake Scugog, which offered access to the waterway via 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 Road 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 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.^[25]

Confederation and further expansion

Work on the canal system remained stagnant until Confederation in 1867. This turned the Province of Canada's government into a federal body, and gave the new province of Ontario's government control over construction. However, 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 the waterway, but still lacked any outlet to the major bodies of water.^[2]

In 1879, John A. Macdonald took an interest in the route once again. Federal funding was provided 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 west.^[2] It was during this time that one of the most infamous events in the system's history took place; at 9:45 AM 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.^[26]

By the time construction on these locks was complete interest once again flagged; the remainder of the route included the majority of the locks that would have to be built. By this time it was clear that the era of the barge canal as a commercial system was over. Watching traffic on the Erie Canal dwindle as freight moved to railways, it's operators decided to make it free to use. This had little effect, and traffic continued to decline. The chief engineer of New York, who had control over the canal, stated that "canals as a successful and necessary means of transportation have outlived their usefulness."^[27] In the case of the Trent, the railways originally intended to service the waterway now provided an even better transport option, leaving little practical reason to continue construction along the hardest parts of the route.^[2] In spite of this, there was strong and continued pressure from citizens along the route of the Trent to see the project continued, while the Macdonald government remained uninterested.

Laurier completes the system

Maters 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 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 centerpiece of the Ontario strategy. With their election win, in spite of losing the popular vote, the party began the final completion of the Trent system.

Mulock's madness

While this work was ongoing, a side-project began that ultimately brought down the Liberals. William Mulock of Newmarket, a growing industrial and market town north of Toronto, was Laurier's right-hand-man in the province. In 1904 the Northern Railway of Canada raised its rates and made several changes that would greatly increase the costs of the industries in the town, so much they claimed it would put them out of business. Mulock hatched a plan to extend the Trent south to the town, an extension officially known as the Holland Subdivision, but universally referred to as the Newmarket Canal.

Critics attacked the concept immediately, pointing out that the economic potential of such a link were nonexistent. But the possibility of bringing federal money to his riding in York North was too good to give up, and Mulock campaigned for it continually, presenting petitions on the part of local residents in favour. However, a survey put the price well over $300,000, a significant amount for such a short link, and was then greatly increased due to changes that appear to have been politically motivated on the part of the Department of Railways and Canals. By the time the plans were complete, the price was approaching $1 million.

In spite of this price, and that Mulock had left the seat in 1905, the party continued to support the project in order to keep the riding in their hands. It became the subject of continual attacks by the Conservatives in the House, and when calculations showed there was too little water to keep it running in the summer, it was heaped with scorn in the press. The party continued to support it throughout, even as it became clear the project was doomed.

The 1911 election brought a swift end to what was by then known as "Mulock's madness". Within days of taking office, Robert Borden ordered a review of the project, and cancelled it shortly thereafter. The remains of the construction, estimated to be 85% complete by that time, were abandoned in place and dot the local landscape to this day. The locals now refer to it as the "ghost canal".

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.

In 1910-11, the Township of Smith and the Chemong Yacht Club filed a claim for land damages caused by the Trent Canal.^[28]

The waterway became 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,^[29] as well as houseboat rental firms.^[30] In June 2013, Barry Devolin, Member of Parliament for the riding of Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock reintroduced Bill C-530, the "Trent-Severn Water Authority Act",^[31] in order to re-capitalise the century-old infrastructure of the waterway.

• 

  Trent–Severn Waterway entering Peterborough at Scotts Mills

• 

  Peterborough Lift Lock

• 

  Kirkfield Lift Lock

• 

  Big Chute Marine Railway

See also

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

References

Citations

1. "Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site", Parks Canada
2. "The History of the Trent-Severn Waterway", Parks Canada
3. Trent–Severn Waterway. Canadian Register of Historic Places.
4. "Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site of Canada". National Historic Sites. Parks Canada. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
5. "11 Höhenunterschiede" [11 Elevation differences]. Main-Donau-Kanal (in German). fen-net.de. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
6. "Celebrating Champlain's Legacy at Trent and in Peterborough". Trent University. Spring 2005.
7. "Yonge Street's History". Globe and Mail. 4 August 2001. Archived from the original on 2002-12-14.
8. Legget, Robert (1955). Rideau Waterway. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 23–25.
9. Angus 1988, p. 8.
10. Angus 1988, p. 9.
11. Angus 1988, pp. 9-10.
12. Jones, Elwood (28 March 2015). "Steamboats and railways: Travellers to and from early Peterborough faced the challenge of Whitla's Rapids". The Peterborough Examiner.
13. Angus 1988, p. 14.
14. Angus 1988, p. 17.
15. Angus 1988, p. 23.
16. Angus 1988, p. 25.
17. Angus 1988, p. 24.
18. Angus 1988, p. 28.
19. Angus 1988, p. 30.
20. Angus 1988, p. 31.
21. Angus 1988, p. 29.
22. Angus 1988, p. 34.
23. Lambton, John (1839). "Report on the Affairs of British North America".
24. Knowles, Valerie (2005). Capital Lives. Book Coach Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN 0-9739071-1-8.
25. Caldwell, Colin (October 2002). "Cobourg Peterborough Railway". Cobourg Star.
26. "1885 Dynamite Explosion". Waymarking.com.
27. Toronto and Georgian Bay Ship Railway. 1888.
28. Trent–Severn Waterway Library & Archives Canada
29. "Home page". Ontario Waterway Cruises. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
30. For example, Egan Houseboats, per "Home page". Egan Houseboats. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
31. legisinfo.ca: Private Member's "BILL C-530"

Bibliography

• Angus, James (1988). A Respectable Ditch: A History of the Trent-Severn Waterway 1833-1920. McGill-Queens University Press. ISBN 9780773518216.

External links

• Panel on the Future of the Trent-Severn Waterway
• Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site, Parks Canada
• TrentSevern.com
• Exploring The Trent-Severn Waterway Article by Ontario Tourism