CANADA 



1111 



CANADA 



nects Lake Huron and Lake Superior (see 

 WELLAND CANAL; SAULT STB. MARIE CANAL). 



Besides these canals on the main line of 

 water communication, there are a number of 

 others, which may be called branches. In 

 actual operation, however, these other canals 

 serve a distinctly local traffic. The Murray 



LIFT LOCK AT PETERBOROUGH 

 The largest of Its kind in the world. 



Canal, from the Bay of Quinte to Lake Ontario, 

 is used only by coasting vessels and is not on 

 the through line from Montreal to Lake Su- 

 perior. The Ottawa-Rideau system, connecting 

 Kingston, on Lake Ontario, with Montreal by 

 way of Ottawa, is 248 miles long, but is a 

 canalized river for a large part of the distance. 

 Another important system extends from Sorel, 

 Que., to Chambly, then to Saint Johns, through 

 the Chambly Canal and up the Richelieu 

 River to Lake Champlain. The Trent Canal 

 is a series of short canals or channels between 

 Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. The hydraulic 

 lift lock on this canal at Peterborough has a 

 lift of sixty-five feet and is the largest lock 

 of its kind in the world. A similar lock at 

 Kirkfield has a lift of fifty feet, five inches. 

 The Trent Canal is used as yet only for local 

 traffic. Saint Peter's Canal, on Cape Breton 

 Island, connects Saint Peter's Bay with the 

 Bras d'Or Lakes and practically cuts the island 

 into two. 



In addition to these canals plans have been 

 drawn for a number of new canals. The largest 

 and most important of these is the Georgian 

 Bay Ship Canal (see GEORGIAN BAY, for illus- 

 tration), from the northeast corner of Georgian 

 Bay to the Ottawa River, and then along the 

 Ottawa Valley to Montreal. This canal will 

 enable ocean-going vessels to steam directly 

 from Montreal to Lake Huron and will shorten 

 the water route between Montreal and ports on 

 Lake Michigan and Lake Superior by nearly 



300 miles. It is estimated that the construc- 

 tion of the canal will cost $125,000,000, which 

 is about the total already spent on all the 

 other canals. 



Railroads. Canada, with more than 30,000 

 miles of railway, has a greater mileage in pro- 

 portion to population than any other country 

 except the Australian Commonwealth. Long 

 ago men realized that the development of 

 Canada could not come without intercolonial 

 and transcontinental railways. Not only were 

 railways needed for an economic reason, but 

 for a political one, to serve as a bond of union 

 between provinces so widely separated. The 

 need of railways as an economic and political 

 bond explains why the government has always 

 been willing to grant liberal subsidies to pri- 

 vate railway companies, and has itself built 

 and now operates two of Canada's great railway 

 systems. See colored map, with this article. 



The first railroad in Canada was built in 

 1836 from La Prairie, near Montreal, to Saint 

 Johns, a distance of sixteen miles. Ten years 

 later another short line was completed from 

 Montreal to Lachine. Canada's railway sys- 

 tem had its real beginning in 1851, when 

 Parliament authorized the construction of a 

 line from Quebec to the western limit of 

 Upper Canada and also a branch from Quebec 

 to Portland, Maine. This line, the Grand 

 Trunk Railway, was completed in 1856, raising 

 Canada's mileage to 1,414. 



Since 1856, when the main line of the Grand 

 Trunk was completed . from Quebec to Sarnia, 

 Ont., on the Saint Clair River, the Grand 

 Trunk has gradually increased its mileage to 

 3,100 in Canada alone, besides numerous con- 

 nections, either owned or leased, to cities in 

 the United States. The main line extends from 

 Portland, Me., through Montreal to Chicago. 

 Three parallel lines extend across the On- 

 tario peninsula, and these are connected by 

 branch lines, one of which extends to Lake 

 Timiskaming. The road was long famous for 

 the old suspension bridge over Niagara Falls, 

 and for the tubular bridge over the Saint 

 Lawrence at Montreal, and the modern steel 

 structures which have replaced the original 

 bridges are noteworthy examples of engineering 

 skill. 



Intercolonial Railway. The Intercolonial 

 was the first of the great railway systems to 

 be owned and operated by the Dominion gov- 

 ernment. It was planned in the days before 

 Confederation hence its name and after Con- 

 federation was completed by the Dominion. It 



