Gallop Canal c1890 – ” Clearing a channel of a sunken hulk”
Toronto. As youth, the news of creation of the St Lawrence Seaway was big news. As usual, the USA declined to pay for construction or host part of the project, but happily made use of the Seaway once completed. The idea was to open ALL the upper great lakes to the ocean for larger vessels. The Seaway was built entirely in Canada with towns moved as necessary.
What I didn’t know was that this was all done over century earlier with the Lachine canal in Montreal and the Welland [one time home of founder, photographer and president, Larry Boccioletti] and Galop canals in Ontario opening the upper great lakes to Montreal and eventually the ocean.
The late Bob Wilson wrote a brief illustrated article for issue 25-5 titled “Upper Entrance Work Galop(s) Canal… 1889-1897”. Bob’s brief text is printed here: “The original series of locks which allowed ships to travel from Montreal to the Upper Great Lakes were built over a period of 26 years, commencing after 1825 when the original Lachine Canal was completed, and ending in 1851 when the Iroquois-Galop lock was finished.
“As soon as the system was in operation, it became obvious that it needed to be expanded, so over the next fifty years the entire system was upgraded. These photographs show the construction activities on one of the lock sites – the upper entrance to the Galop(s) Canal, just east of Prescott, near the town of Iroquois, on the St. Lawrence River.
“These photographs are all from one album of 47 prints. The photographer or publisher is not noted, but presumably it was put together as a progress report by an engineering firm that worked on the construction.
The photographs are all cyanotypes – the type of photograph that an engineering firm would use due to the ease of processing.
Members viewed all Bob’s images plus other article in the issue 25-5 pdf file on the free members-only DVD/thumb drive. See above and at right to join. Email member@phsc.ca with any questions.
