As I live in the area, my father took me there in 1959 after it was finished. Years later, I flew a small plane along the river and near Massena you can still see the old Rt 37 under the water, as well as driveways and foundations where buildings used to stand.
I lived in Massena NY my stepfather helped build the seaway. Later we moved to Niagra Falls NY and he worked on the project there. Later I went to work at Caterpillar till I retired after 38 years later. Always liked northern NY.
Hey John! I'm a MaineIAC who went to Massena to work on that project in '57,, what, that's only 64 years ago, seems like yesterday! grin. just a labourer , took me years to get a better paying job than what I got paid on the project, if your stepdad is still alive , ask him what a wiggle tail is! have a good day mate
I grew up in Canton. My father worked on the power plant and the locks. He was always so proud of the project. He took us to visit many times. I have a treasured photo of him standing next to a turbine. I miss northern NY.
I worked on the Robert Moses Power Dam in the 1950's for the prime contractor: The Perini Corp. I worked with the Chief Engineer Einer Skinnerlin. Einer was a Hydro engineer from Norway and during WWII he was one of the saboteurs who blew up the German hard water plant and was featured in the Richard Widmark film "The Hero of Telemark". Also of interest: Perini Corp. president owned the Milwaukee Braves baseball team.
Everyone upstream right through the Duluth and everyone in between benefited from the St Lawrence seaway well in Canal and Soo locks and everything in between. It's amazing what human beings can accomplish when they put their mind and money to work.
I lived in Toronto in 1958. I was a kid and only vaguely knew what was happening. Great to see this history that I lived through without care. There was nothing that we could not achieve. Now everything is beyond us. :-(
@@653j521, perhaps you have a problem understanding English idioms. The point is a significant timidity has metastasized in the culture and everything appears to be "beyond us". That is it appears to be beyond our capabilities while it most certainly is not.
when i think how my late father in 1959 was a engineer during the final stages of the powerplant then in 1961 he decided to take a trip by car to canada with my mother me and my older sister my grandfather was living in yarmouth novascotia at the time so it was like a journey back then the great part was the private tour we got of the inside of the powerplant my mother and sister were hanging on to the handrail as we went down into one of the turbines AWSOME i was 6 years old i remember it today i still have my dads books on the st lawrence river powerplant and movies of part of the trip
In 5th grade we read about the completion of The Seaway in our Weekly Reader. We had 'discussion time' with our teacher and it was sort of interesting because we lived near San Francisco. That was about as far away from The Seaway as we could be. Ah, to be 9-10 year old's again.
Thank you Walt for being a part of my growing up in the 60s. In today's world of self promotion it was comforting to have your perspective, and that's the way it is.
My grandfather was a farmer 8 km from Iroquois and he helped negotiate better land prices for farmers when their land was bought by Ontario Hydro for the project. It was built just a few years before I was born but my grandfather talked about it proudly for the rest of his life. A truly remarkable project.
My grandfather had a construction company out of Montreal that did a lot of work in Morrisburg/ Iroquois during the excavation. I grew up in Morrisburg, so it's good to see that footage and know the story here.
Those towns are in my family tree as well! I lived in Montreal for 18 months in the early 80s so this is amazing to see ! My parents came and went on liners through the seaway in World war2
@@veronaraven3099 I would also recommend Upper Canada Village, if you are in the area. Many of the buildings from both The Lost Villages and Upper Canada Village were relocated during the inundation.
Great example of 50's optimism. Unfortunately, even the soothing voice of Walter Cronkite couldn't overcome the problems soon to befall the Seaway. Within ten years, almost everything changed when it came to shipping. The largest bulk cargo carried was grains being exported to Europe. As that continent recovered from WWII, they became mostly self sufficient in grains. The new markets for this bulk cargo became South American and Africa, and if was much less expensive to load the grains into railroad cars and haul it to Gulf ports than to sail the long and slow route of the Seaway and all the way south. The next largest exports were sheet steel from Great Lakes ports like Cleveland. However, 1960 marked the st art of the decline of US steel making as cheaper imports from countries like Brazil began to displace US Steel. The decline became a rout. By 1990, no steel at all was being shipped from Cleveland. What little that was still being made traveled by rail or truck. Next was the revolution of container shipping. No longer was there a need for all those freighters carrying mixed cargoes, known as break bulk cargo, in holds and loaded and unloaded by relatively small cranes on each ship. Just about any dry cargo, from grains to finished products, could be loaded in containers and loaded and unloaded by automated cranes, eliminating the need for large numbers of stevedores, along with their jobs. With the standardized size of containers, ever larger and faster ships were built to handle them. These ships all exceeded the Seawaymax set by those locks. The engineers designing the canal in the early 1950's had no way to know that, within 20 years of the opening 800 to 900 foot long container ships became common. Now goods that might have been carried on the Seaway were transported by rail to the ports of the East Coast. Due to all those factors, traffic through the Seaway started to decline. It was a rare year that saw an increase over the previous year. As new types of break bulk cargo have started to use containers and ships built to Seawaymax size, and cruise ships started to include Great Lakes ports in their itineraries, Seaway traffic started to show modest increases by the late 90's. That has continued through today. The Seaway has, except for the first ten years, never met forecasts for traffic and tolls. Given all this, the Seaway has never paid for itself and likely never will. In some years, revenue has barely covered the cost of all the dredging required to keep river channels at 27 feet. While it has provided employment for some people, others lost their jobs. The Seaway was a case of engineering being ahead of economics. Engineers like to build thins, especially huge projects like the Seaway. They then backfit revenue projections to make it seem as if it was a no brainer to build it. It is a magnificent feat of engineering and construction, and any of the locks are well worth the visit.
@@jimdandy9671 Yeah, I was also wondering about the biological/ecological impact. After reading Sar Jim's comment, like you did, I was like -whoa...WTF? Did they not see these shipping/industrial trends coming? So, all in all, you look at all the diesel burned (still burning for the constant dredging) by all the dozers/trucks/cranes to make all this, and you've got a thermal smokey clusterpluck! BTW, I'm in the MO Ozarks and we got that damn Zebra Mussel down here now! Bahh.......
Interesting analysis of the seaway after 60 years. Disappointing that it just didn't pay off. (Read Jim Dandy's reply to your comment & & my reply for 2 other concerns!)
@@boboala1 I wasn't attempting answering any ecological problems, only economic. I realize things like the Zebra mussel have also caused economic problems, but I was only addressing the claim the Seaway would pay for itself. As to your question about them not seeing into the future, I can guarantee you no one in 1950 would have predicted the shipping economy of 1980 - no one. Rapid changes in technology have sunk many a project, and the Seaway was another, but I'm not blaming the designers for not having a crystal ball. The costs of dredging have been made worse by general lowering of lake levels over the past 50 years, something the designers of the Seaway also couldn't have foreseen.
My parents' house was just west of Iroquois, right on the Seaway. One of my childhood joys, was sitting on the front porch, watching the ships going by. I can still remember my Dad calling us out to come see them.
Now THAT is a professional narrator, journalist, news reporter and anchorman. Not ONCE did he "talk with his hands", as seen today on every newscast by every person in front of the camera. The whole professional journalistic era of Walter Kronkite will never return.
There was a time when all the families of the entire nation sat together in front of their black and white television sets each night to watch the evening news on CBS, NBC or ABC. There is nobody in the news business today who comes close to matching the respect earned by those early news anchors.
@Randy Smith Yes. As LBJ was considering his second term in 1968, he remarked, "When I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost the nation." Soon thereafter he chose not to seek reelection. "I will not seek, nor will I accept, my party's nomination for President of the United States."
He learned on radio so talking with his hands would just make noise and interfere with the sound quality. My family preferred Huntley and Brinkley. Cronkite was too accepting of whatever he was told. H and B had an edge, had a refusal to believe the p.r. they were handed. My parents didn't want Uncle Walter. They wanted the truth.
Thanks so much for posting this.I was in grade 1 in 1959 and I've heard only about the St Lawrence Seaway project in the abstract. Finally I now see what was going on in specific terms.
Reminded me of Walter Cronkite and his program "The 20th Centurry" Learning from this show was relaxed and retained. Thanks for sharing. Narragansett Bay
Jeb - The program was called “The 21st Century”, and it was broadcast on Sunday evenings at 6pm on CBS in the 1960s. It’s likely that “60 Minutes” took over that time slot.
Canadian publishers aren't interested in this history-- I know-- I tried. I spent a year at the National Archives, Library, local historical societies, and even spoke with people who remembered "The Lost Villages" (There's a museum of that name on the Ontario side), putting together a book proposal. I pitched it to all the major Canadian publishers back in 2005 and only one (Dundurn) showed a glimmer of interest, but only if I wrote it as a 'souvenir' book for the Seaway's anniversary. The rest said that while my proposal was well done (and I'd already published another nonfiction book in the U.S.), there just wasn't enough public interest in the subject. I asked how the public could be interested if they knew nothing about it, but received no answer. There is a lot of buried scandal in that history along with the buried villages-- I guess some "notable" Canadian or American author will have to write it.
I would imagine the “propaganda” needed was high, which is why they hired Walter Kronkite to both appear and narrate…$1BUSD referred around 5:00 is an awful lot of powerful people getting ‘returns’.
This is the kind of stuff which needs to be in the junior high curriculum in both countries, I believe the interest would be self generating. Upper Canada Village is a historic village built with much of the history that came from the flooded lands. There are still remnants of the original Canadian canal at Cardinal Ontario. Our history is being forgotten.
Wowww,,,I planned on looking up these “we have to go, but hope to grow” towns/villages, next, and the whole houses (contents intact) tediously mounted onto wide load trailers and hauled off! Knowing I’ll find nothing to read or watch on this subject is shocking and sad. How can Canada be so lax on documenting historic events? Then, to turn your interested proposal down, is appealing, imo. That nonchalant attitude borders on criminal, imo. It’s irresponsible to maintain little record keeping, to say the least!
Cronkite talks about it costing millions, but today it would cost trillions. My father and I sailed a 55' steel hull Berger from Lake Huron through the Seaway and just as we approached a place called Gaspe, we saw a water funnel doing a slow hoola dance as it moved away from us. After about two or three minutes it literally started raining down all kinds of fish and other marine life. It took us a while to figure out how something like that could happen, other than the hand of God scenario, but finally figured out that the water spout must have sucked all of that up as it was passing over the water. Some pretty rough water coming around that point into the open sea.
The original cost was ~$1B. Inflated, that gets closer to $10B. Not out of the question. Some individuals on this planet could afford to fund this with their private wealth...
@@RX120D You can't go by consumer price inflation. Every product, every sector, every asset class has its own rate of inflation. I think the cost today would likely run to several tens of billions.
@@dixonpinfold2582 You also have to factor in the pocket lining too. Plus on a project as big as this now there would be several “groups” with hands out looking for their “compensation” for the harm created by the project that they have to endure.
@@Crewsy There was a study recently that found that the cost of building a tunnel in the United States is 7x higher than in Europe (yes, seven times higher). They examined how that could be possible, and found it's all because of labor unions, contractors and consultants who have learned how to shake down taxpayers. 12 guys operate a boring machine, 40 guys stand there and watch (or aren't even on the job site), all getting paid tons of overtime, and then the union gets a 7-figure fee for using a machine that they say displaces workers!
I LOVE WATCHING DOCUMENTARYS LIKE THESE THERE ACTUALLY PRICELESS I THINK IT SHOULD BE MANDATORY FOR SCHOOLS .WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD & THE AIR WE BREATH WAS MUCH MUCH BETTER THAN ...NOW IF YOU TSKE AN TABLET OR PHONE AWAY FROM YOUNGER KIDS THEY WILL LITERALLY HAVE A NERVOUS BREAK DOWN.....
STEVE SRAN You need to do some research if you think before the ecological movement the air was clean and life was good for people other than your family.
Great old documentary! Complete with the old film lines and unrefined audio, like old records and one of my favourite brands of breakfast cereal... Snap! Crackle! Pop!
When the seaway opened in 1959 my dad took me to the ceremony in Duluth when it got there. I never completely understood the particulars until now. From Uncle Walter, no less! Enjoyed it.
Intentional. They knew full well they were going to put the screws to the river communities... the carrot was cheap power and all of it went to lure jobs to the area.
@@brikkijim Ocean freighters have accidentally imported zebra mussels and 56 other invasive species to the lakes which, collectively, have caused billions of dollars in damage and triggered profound ecological changes. It killed them, and didn't deliver the economic benefits it's claimed it would. All it did was ruin the lakes and help export grain
WOW dear friend !!! Thank you for this awesome work !! It was a really great pleasure to watch your video my dear !! It is really amazing and exiting !!! Warm greetings… have a wonderful week....huge hugs.lk
Very interesting documentary, which was when the highway system was also being built all over the country... I can only imagine how many prehistoric fossils and bones were dug up and discarded in the fill..
So much hope for the future! Canada had to drag USA kicking and screaming into building the two US locks along the St. Lawrence. (Canada built 5 locks.) And now, Canada derives more benefit from the St. Lawrence Seaway than the USA: while USA does tons of overseas shipping, very little goes through the Great Lakes.
@@michaela1655 The point is, there are many infested lakes with no connections other then people being lazy and not cleaning their boats, or those who get bored with their aquarium and toss it in the nearest lake. A canal or seaway has little bearing on the spread of invasives.
The music we hear in the background during the documentary reminded me when I was watching buggs bunny giving the construction worker a hard time doing his job.🚧🐰
I don't know whether to love this for the progress or not like it because of its environmental and societal impacts. I definitely lean towards the idea of progress. Would have loved to be around in the 1950s.
This was a big deal in the late 1950s. When I was in elementary school in NYS we had big celebrations about Alaska and Hawaii becoming states, and the st. Lawrence seaway being completed. Now it’s almost to small for the ocean sized freighters that sail the seas.
When I was growing up in the 60’s, my parents & I trusted this man completely to tell the truth! It is a damn shame that there is no public figure a nymore
@@danielulz1640 we didn’t lose it. The damned Congress and senate forced us to get out after making the soldiers operate under impossible ROE. The pull out in 1975 was a direct result of an immediate cutoff of government funding.
Yes I believe the water is pumped out to lower the ship to next level. My father worked on the Eisenhower locks and celebrated its completion with my mother and I was conceived 😊
The St. Lawrence Seaway was built by American and Canada. This was back when America had the confidence to do great things. Now we can just barely pass a budget or name a new post office. We have sank so low.
This is where I grew up. My dad worked for Ontario Hydro working on moving power lines for the flooding that followed. We lived at Morrisburg right in the centre of all the construction or so it seemed. Great time to be a kid with all the huge equipment that was used for the project.
My grandfather and father both worked on the Seaway. I saw roads that went down into the water that are all flooded now. Lots of ships still pass through the locks at Massena.
No lasers, no electronic equipment and they got it done! Today we have to have a cushy cab with ac, stereo and joy stick controls, and if we get fatigued we have stress management classes. And a guy using a jackhammer! god forbid that today! "oh my back!", workmens comp claim here we go! And the the guy standing on the steel piling while its dropped! no way! today. Clint Eastwood said it best for this generation, "the pussie generation"
@@RomeKG471 not all American s pussy s. Some goofy fake movie actor should come to Brooklyn up on steel and run his mouth call us "pussies"..lol Hollywood is spoiled and make money on war movies violence yet quick to judge us.. Tell us not to fly drive have a gun yet they do..
I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast. I started elementary school in the early 60s. Massive civil engineering projects like this were lightly touched on but the scale of such projects was not communicated. Being so far away it wasn't considered important? I plan seek out other documentaries on the St. L S.
With or without the reassuring tone of the voice of Cronkite, this could never be built today in North America. Far too many people with corrupted intentions posing as global saviors would never permit it.
So where can we find people in the twenty-first century who are willing to even try to enunciate as clearly and distinctly as WALTER CRONKITE did? (I'm 77 and it would benefit me greatly if such people could be found.)
You certainly will not find them in today's so called "news services". Most of our reporters/journalist are too wrapped up in their social justice warrior idealogy and or their liberal or conservative politics. Personally I don't trust many of them at all.
The guy standing in that "boardroom" dramatization sounded like Don Adams (of "Get Smart" fame) but looked more like one of the guys who played Darrin Stevens in "Bewitched", though I'm not sure which one (Dick York or Dick Sargent). It isn't likely they had the budget for any of them, though.
Hi, working on a documentary of the area. I was wondering if someone could contact me about this footage, would love to see about getting it licensed for use. Thanks
@k1w1 oh yes, absolutely. I'm an advocate and great fan of thalassocracies, from the phoenicians and greeks to modern Britain and the US. It just seemed a bit of a strech to claim that every great civilization has been rooted on the sea. It all depends on circumstances and the technology of the time. Great civilizations can flourish inland too.
Maybe this is just an issue with UA-cam compression, but your blacks are crushed so details are lost in dark areas. Also, at 3:55, something really weird going on with the water
Brought to you from the PAST, when collectively, we got shit done. Imagine how different the great lakes shoreline would look if this work was never done. Ok, now go back to your mindless video browsing and skipping commercials...
wasn't it a plan in the 60s to canal from the artic sea rivers to the center of canada and down to the mississippi? the other half to go thru the rocky mtn. trench to mexico?
As I live in the area, my father took me there in 1959 after it was finished. Years later, I flew a small plane along the river and near Massena you can still see the old Rt 37 under the water, as well as driveways and foundations where buildings used to stand.
cool always wanted to go ship watching at massena...
@@dismalgravesite7763 I view them from my house in Chippewa Bay
Reminds me of sitting in school during the 70’s and 80’s, watching a projector movie during class. 👍
As a kid, I loved these informational news shows. This is how we learned about the world.
Propaganda is a powerful thing
I got all my lessons in history from Boney M!
@@randyralls9658 for good and for bad.
@@randyralls9658 I’m curious to hear how you interpret this to be biased or pushing a particular political agenda.
I lived in Massena NY my stepfather helped build the seaway. Later we moved to Niagra Falls NY and he worked on the project there. Later I went to work at Caterpillar till I retired after 38 years later. Always liked northern NY.
Hey John! I'm a MaineIAC who went to Massena to work on that project in '57,, what, that's only 64 years ago, seems like yesterday! grin. just a labourer , took me years to get a better paying job than what I got paid on the project, if your stepdad is still alive , ask him what a wiggle tail is! have a good day mate
I grew up in Canton. My father worked on the power plant and the locks. He was always so proud of the project. He took us to visit many times. I have a treasured photo of him standing next to a turbine. I miss northern NY.
A gem of a documentary, with the building of the seaway perfectly explained by Mr. C. 👍
Wish today's newscasters were as neutral as Walter Cronkite.
I worked on the Robert Moses Power Dam in the 1950's for the prime contractor: The Perini Corp. I worked with the Chief Engineer Einer Skinnerlin. Einer was a Hydro engineer from Norway and during WWII he was one of the saboteurs who blew up the German hard water plant and was featured in the Richard Widmark film "The Hero of Telemark". Also of interest: Perini Corp. president owned the Milwaukee Braves baseball team.
heavy water...
Robert Moses. The man who gutted NYC because he cared about highways not people.
I travelled from Quebec to Chicago and back in 1967 when I was in the Merchant Navy. A brilliant trip
Everyone upstream right through the Duluth and everyone in between benefited from the St Lawrence seaway well in Canal and Soo locks and everything in between. It's amazing what human beings can accomplish when they put their mind and money to work.
Wrong. The Seaway killed Buffalo, New York and rose Toronto to prominence. Buffalo became "Radiator Springs" in 1959.
we used to get things done, very impressive
I lived in Toronto in 1958. I was a kid and only vaguely knew what was happening. Great to see this history that I lived through without care. There was nothing that we could not achieve. Now everything is beyond us. :-(
Saratogan What do you want to accomplish that is beyond you?
@@653j521, perhaps you have a problem understanding English idioms. The point is a significant timidity has metastasized in the culture and everything appears to be "beyond us". That is it appears to be beyond our capabilities while it most certainly is not.
Walter's voice, like Orson Well's and James Earl Jones, is one of their great legacies.
12:44 absolutely amazing how the did things back in the day. Having your spotter ride the sheet piling as you go down the line is something else.
You can tell osha wasn't around then. lol
Interesting presentation made even better by host Walter Cronkite! Thanks for sharing.
This is still played all the time at the Eisenhower locks during tourist season.
when i think how my late father in 1959 was a engineer during the final stages of the powerplant then in 1961 he decided to take a trip by car to canada with my mother me and my older sister my grandfather was living in yarmouth novascotia at the time so it was like a journey back then the great part was the private tour we got of the inside of the powerplant my mother and sister were hanging on to the handrail as we went down into one of the turbines AWSOME i was 6 years old i remember it today i still have my dads books on the st lawrence river powerplant and movies of part of the trip
Sure and I'm Santa
Great story sheddski6415. Those are wonderful memories we hold onto for a lifetime. Thanks for sharing.
In 5th grade we read about the completion of The Seaway in our Weekly Reader. We had 'discussion time' with our teacher and it was sort of interesting because we lived near San Francisco. That was about as far away from The Seaway as we could be. Ah, to be 9-10 year old's again.
Marston Davis Ah, to be an adult and choose which places I want to visit. Oh, wait, that's what I am. How nice. :D
Thank you Walt for being a part of my growing up in the 60s. In today's world of self promotion it was comforting to have your perspective, and that's the way it is.
I was impressed with that model
I love old docs like these...…..this channel delivers!
My grandfather was a farmer 8 km from Iroquois and he helped negotiate better land prices for farmers when their land was bought by Ontario Hydro for the project. It was built just a few years before I was born but my grandfather talked about it proudly for the rest of his life. A truly remarkable project.
My grandfather had a construction company out of Montreal that did a lot of work in Morrisburg/ Iroquois during the excavation. I grew up in Morrisburg, so it's good to see that footage and know the story here.
Those towns are in my family tree as well! I lived in Montreal for 18 months in the early 80s so this is amazing to see ! My parents came and went on liners through the seaway in World war2
The lost villages museum is really interesting...
@@veronaraven3099 I would also recommend Upper Canada Village, if you are in the area. Many of the buildings from both The Lost Villages and Upper Canada Village were relocated during the inundation.
Great example of 50's optimism. Unfortunately, even the soothing voice of Walter Cronkite couldn't overcome the problems soon to befall the Seaway. Within ten years, almost everything changed when it came to shipping. The largest bulk cargo carried was grains being exported to Europe. As that continent recovered from WWII, they became mostly self sufficient in grains. The new markets for this bulk cargo became South American and Africa, and if was much less expensive to load the grains into railroad cars and haul it to Gulf ports than to sail the long and slow route of the Seaway and all the way south.
The next largest exports were sheet steel from Great Lakes ports like Cleveland. However, 1960 marked the st art of the decline of US steel making as cheaper imports from countries like Brazil began to displace US Steel. The decline became a rout. By 1990, no steel at all was being shipped from Cleveland. What little that was still being made traveled by rail or truck.
Next was the revolution of container shipping. No longer was there a need for all those freighters carrying mixed cargoes, known as break bulk cargo, in holds and loaded and unloaded by relatively small cranes on each ship. Just about any dry cargo, from grains to finished products, could be loaded in containers and loaded and unloaded by automated cranes, eliminating the need for large numbers of stevedores, along with their jobs. With the standardized size of containers, ever larger and faster ships were built to handle them. These ships all exceeded the Seawaymax set by those locks. The engineers designing the canal in the early 1950's had no way to know that, within 20 years of the opening 800 to 900 foot long container ships became common. Now goods that might have been carried on the Seaway were transported by rail to the ports of the East Coast.
Due to all those factors, traffic through the Seaway started to decline. It was a rare year that saw an increase over the previous year. As new types of break bulk cargo have started to use containers and ships built to Seawaymax size, and cruise ships started to include Great Lakes ports in their itineraries, Seaway traffic started to show modest increases by the late 90's. That has continued through today.
The Seaway has, except for the first ten years, never met forecasts for traffic and tolls. Given all this, the Seaway has never paid for itself and likely never will. In some years, revenue has barely covered the cost of all the dredging required to keep river channels at 27 feet. While it has provided employment for some people, others lost their jobs. The Seaway was a case of engineering being ahead of economics. Engineers like to build thins, especially huge projects like the Seaway. They then backfit revenue projections to make it seem as if it was a no brainer to build it. It is a magnificent feat of engineering and construction, and any of the locks are well worth the visit.
Great comment; was looking for some modern perspective
Yeah but without it, we would never have acquired the sea lamprey, Asian carp & the Zebra muscle!
@@jimdandy9671 Yeah, I was also wondering about the biological/ecological impact. After reading Sar Jim's comment, like you did, I was like -whoa...WTF? Did they not see these shipping/industrial trends coming? So, all in all, you look at all the diesel burned (still burning for the constant dredging) by all the dozers/trucks/cranes to make all this, and you've got a thermal smokey clusterpluck! BTW, I'm in the MO Ozarks and we got that damn Zebra Mussel down here now! Bahh.......
Interesting analysis of the seaway after 60 years. Disappointing that it just didn't pay off. (Read Jim Dandy's reply to your comment & & my reply for 2 other concerns!)
@@boboala1 I wasn't attempting answering any ecological problems, only economic. I realize things like the Zebra mussel have also caused economic problems, but I was only addressing the claim the Seaway would pay for itself.
As to your question about them not seeing into the future, I can guarantee you no one in 1950 would have predicted the shipping economy of 1980 - no one. Rapid changes in technology have sunk many a project, and the Seaway was another, but I'm not blaming the designers for not having a crystal ball. The costs of dredging have been made worse by general lowering of lake levels over the past 50 years, something the designers of the Seaway also couldn't have foreseen.
My parents' house was just west of Iroquois, right on the Seaway. One of my childhood joys, was sitting on the front porch, watching the ships going by. I can still remember my Dad calling us out to come see them.
You must have been right on the old Galop canal (what's left of it there).
Oh how I miss Walter Cronkite
"And that's the way it is!"
Now THAT is a professional narrator, journalist, news reporter and anchorman. Not ONCE did he "talk with his hands", as seen today on every newscast by every person in front of the camera. The whole professional journalistic era of Walter Kronkite will never return.
There was a time when all the families of the entire nation sat together in front of their black and white television sets each night to watch the evening news on CBS, NBC or ABC. There is nobody in the news business today who comes close to matching the respect earned by those early news anchors.
There'll never be another Cronkite. Not that you'd know. You can't even spell his name.
@Randy Smith Yes. As LBJ was considering his second term in 1968, he remarked, "When I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost the nation." Soon thereafter he chose not to seek reelection. "I will not seek, nor will I accept, my party's nomination for President of the United States."
I know, right?
He learned on radio so talking with his hands would just make noise and interfere with the sound quality. My family preferred Huntley and Brinkley. Cronkite was too accepting of whatever he was told. H and B had an edge, had a refusal to believe the p.r. they were handed. My parents didn't want Uncle Walter. They wanted the truth.
I remember seeing this video in school.
Thanks for the memories.
Thanks so much for posting this.I was in grade 1 in 1959 and I've heard only about the St Lawrence Seaway project in the abstract. Finally I now see what was going on in specific terms.
Reminded me of Walter Cronkite and his program "The 20th Centurry" Learning from this show was relaxed and retained. Thanks for sharing. Narragansett Bay
I thought it was Douglas Edwards.
Jeb - The program was called “The 21st Century”, and it was broadcast on Sunday evenings at 6pm on CBS in the 1960s. It’s likely that “60 Minutes” took over that time slot.
Pretty Interesting. I'm fascinated now, give us more!
Canadian publishers aren't interested in this history-- I know-- I tried. I spent a year at the National Archives, Library, local historical societies, and even spoke with people who remembered "The Lost Villages" (There's a museum of that name on the Ontario side), putting together a book proposal. I pitched it to all the major Canadian publishers back in 2005 and only one (Dundurn) showed a glimmer of interest, but only if I wrote it as a 'souvenir' book for the Seaway's anniversary. The rest said that while my proposal was well done (and I'd already published another nonfiction book in the U.S.), there just wasn't enough public interest in the subject. I asked how the public could be interested if they knew nothing about it, but received no answer. There is a lot of buried scandal in that history along with the buried villages-- I guess some "notable" Canadian or American author will have to write it.
It's true, I live near the Power Dam and they barely talk about the history around here
I would imagine the “propaganda” needed was high, which is why they hired Walter Kronkite to both appear and narrate…$1BUSD referred around 5:00 is an awful lot of powerful people getting ‘returns’.
Are you saying this project shouldn’t have been built?
This is the kind of stuff which needs to be in the junior high curriculum in both countries, I believe the interest would be self generating. Upper Canada Village is a historic village built with much of the history that came from the flooded lands. There are still remnants of the original Canadian canal at Cardinal Ontario. Our history is being forgotten.
Wowww,,,I planned on looking up these “we have to go, but hope to grow” towns/villages, next, and the whole houses (contents intact) tediously mounted onto wide load trailers and hauled off! Knowing I’ll find nothing to read or watch on this subject is shocking and sad. How can Canada be so lax on documenting historic events? Then, to turn your interested proposal down, is appealing, imo. That nonchalant attitude borders on criminal, imo. It’s irresponsible to maintain little record keeping, to say the least!
Cronkite talks about it costing millions, but today it would cost trillions. My father and I sailed a 55' steel hull Berger from Lake Huron through the Seaway and just as we approached a place called Gaspe, we saw a water funnel doing a slow hoola dance as it moved away from us. After about two or three minutes it literally started raining down all kinds of fish and other marine life. It took us a while to figure out how something like that could happen, other than the hand of God scenario, but finally figured out that the water spout must have sucked all of that up as it was passing over the water. Some pretty rough water coming around that point into the open sea.
The original cost was ~$1B. Inflated, that gets closer to $10B. Not out of the question. Some individuals on this planet could afford to fund this with their private wealth...
@@RX120D You can't go by consumer price inflation. Every product, every sector, every asset class has its own rate of inflation. I think the cost today would likely run to several tens of billions.
@@dixonpinfold2582
You also have to factor in the pocket lining too.
Plus on a project as big as this now there would be several “groups” with hands out looking for their “compensation” for the harm created by the project that they have to endure.
@@Crewsy There was a study recently that found that the cost of building a tunnel in the United States is 7x higher than in Europe (yes, seven times higher). They examined how that could be possible, and found it's all because of labor unions, contractors and consultants who have learned how to shake down taxpayers. 12 guys operate a boring machine, 40 guys stand there and watch (or aren't even on the job site), all getting paid tons of overtime, and then the union gets a 7-figure fee for using a machine that they say displaces workers!
I LOVE WATCHING DOCUMENTARYS LIKE THESE THERE ACTUALLY PRICELESS
I THINK IT SHOULD BE MANDATORY FOR SCHOOLS .WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD & THE AIR WE BREATH WAS MUCH MUCH BETTER THAN ...NOW IF YOU TSKE AN TABLET OR PHONE AWAY FROM YOUNGER KIDS THEY WILL LITERALLY HAVE A NERVOUS BREAK DOWN.....
STEVE SRAN You need to do some research if you think before the ecological movement the air was clean and life was good for people other than your family.
Crazy ambitious
Great old documentary! Complete with the old film lines and unrefined audio, like old records and one of my favourite brands of breakfast cereal... Snap! Crackle! Pop!
I enjoyed the 1950s visual aids: A real physical model with inserts that get removed by hand.
When the seaway opened in 1959 my dad took me to the ceremony in Duluth when it got there. I never completely understood the particulars until now. From Uncle Walter, no less! Enjoyed it.
It is incredible!! 😀
He's Walter Kronkite and this is how it is. 👍😁😂
Great video. Wish they referenced more towns & islands along the way though; to make it easier to follow.
Intentional. They knew full well they were going to put the screws to the river communities... the carrot was cheap power and all of it went to lure jobs to the area.
There's no way an environmental impact study would let you do this today. I'm glad they did it when they could.
I'm glad they did too. We moved to Morrisburg in 1956 and so I got to see it all happen as a young boy.
They wouldn’t let you do it today because the Great Lakes are dying because of this
@@nickspick155 be specific please
@@brikkijim Ocean freighters have accidentally imported zebra mussels and 56 other invasive species to the lakes which, collectively, have caused billions of dollars in damage and triggered profound ecological changes. It killed them, and didn't deliver the economic benefits it's claimed it would. All it did was ruin the lakes and help export grain
@@Doctor_Subtilis thank you for the info. I always like to hear the reasons for blaise comments.
I live 10 minutes away from this dam and had no idea the history was so significant.
A very informative video thank's for sharing.
I really enjoyed this!
WOW dear friend !!! Thank you for this awesome work !! It was a really great pleasure to
watch your video my dear !! It is really amazing and exiting !!! Warm greetings…
have a wonderful week....huge hugs.lk
My step-father's childhood home, a farm in Massena, NY was taken by emminant domain for the seaway. The Eisenhower Locks.
In late 50s the technology was so advance, fantastic project.
Wonderful !
Thanks this was very interesting to watch.
Very interesting documentary, which was when the highway system was also being built all over the country... I can only imagine how many prehistoric fossils and bones were dug up and discarded in the fill..
Back when we built big ambitions
The best film ever!
Very interesting
I fully agree with the very good comments already made by others that probably liked the video even more than I did. Many thanks.
So much hope for the future! Canada had to drag USA kicking and screaming into building the two US locks along the St. Lawrence. (Canada built 5 locks.) And now, Canada derives more benefit from the St. Lawrence Seaway than the USA: while USA does tons of overseas shipping, very little goes through the Great Lakes.
I watched this on TV when I was a kid (I'm 66 now).
"Seaway" It ran one season, 30 episodes in 65/66. There were plenty of bad guys on the Seaway!
Your old ..lol
Thanks for the invasive species in the great Lakes.
So how do you explain the invasive species in the Finger Lakes? If there are people there are invasives.
@@pbcanal1 maybe from bilge water from boaters returning from lake Ontario , either way still sucks .
Thanks for the dumbass comment.
@@pbcanal1 There are canals that connect some of the fingers lakes to the Hudson River, and thus the Atlantic Ocean.
@@michaela1655 The point is, there are many infested lakes with no connections other then people being lazy and not cleaning their boats, or those who get bored with their aquarium and toss it in the nearest lake. A canal or seaway has little bearing on the spread of invasives.
Awesome video.
They brought muscles from around the world almost wrecking the fresh water.
It’s still wrecking the fresh water :’(
The music we hear in the background during the documentary reminded me when I was watching buggs bunny giving the construction worker a hard time doing his job.🚧🐰
"Ahh, What's Up Doc"?
@@jaminova_1969 😂🥕
saw this at the ontario hydro dam in cornwall ont.
I don't know whether to love this for the progress or not like it because of its environmental and societal impacts. I definitely lean towards the idea of progress. Would have loved to be around in the 1950s.
This was a big deal in the late 1950s. When I was in elementary school in NYS we had big celebrations about Alaska and Hawaii becoming states, and the st. Lawrence seaway being completed. Now it’s almost to small for the ocean sized freighters that sail the seas.
I lived near the Soulange Canal and often went to the Lachine canal ,at that time it was boom time and exiting
Reminds me of the films they show at school ( Canton Central). Alongside the anti-draft dodging films In rolls the TV and out goes the lights. 😊
Teşekkürler efendim 🎁
And that's the way it is.
Many may not remember Walter Cronkite's sign off.
Marion.
At the time, Cronkite was already well known for his narration and appearances on "THE TWENTIETH CENTURY".
Some of us remember.
Good night Chet ! , Good night Dave ! 😎👍📽 , as in Huntley and Brinkley !
@@harryscott9533 Poor Chet died soon after he retired. But David lasted a long time. An uncle of mine knew him.
And thus, we opened up the Great Lakes to the Sea Lamprey. Well, the canals did a good job of that.
When I was growing up in the 60’s, my parents & I trusted this man completely to tell the truth! It is a damn shame that there is no public figure a nymore
Walter Cronkite told us we lost the Vietnam war. He was a liar.
@@elizabethbrower640 hmm a revisionist spews
@@alpearson9158 Walter cronkite was a revisionist, yes.
@@elizabethbrower640 we did lose the Vietnam War. South Vietnam is now under communist control. What are you talkin about?
@@danielulz1640 we didn’t lose it. The damned Congress and senate forced us to get out after making the soldiers operate under impossible ROE. The pull out in 1975 was a direct result of an immediate cutoff of government funding.
Good old Walt
Thanks an amazing feat of engineering finished the year i was born . I guess the greenies would stop a project like this today
The water isn’t pumped into the locks. They operate by gravity. I used to work at Eisenhower and Snell locks in Massena.
Yes I believe the water is pumped out to lower the ship to next level. My father worked on the Eisenhower locks and celebrated its completion with my mother and I was conceived 😊
Wow...can we do something like this now..cooperation..Yes.. Usa and Canada..great
Love the "Canadian" at 2:20. "Say fellas.............."
The St. Lawrence Seaway was built by American and Canada. This was back when America had the confidence to do great things. Now we can just barely pass a budget or name a new post office. We have sank so low.
He would have been 42 when this film was released.
What a life he had. He saw WWII, Korea, and Vietnam wars, all the Moon launches in person, and could get the president on the phone anytime he wanted.
Cool my area
My father worked on the construction of the Seaway.
This is where I grew up. My dad worked for Ontario Hydro working on moving power lines for the flooding that followed. We lived at Morrisburg right in the centre of all the construction or so it seemed. Great time to be a kid with all the huge equipment that was used for the project.
My grandfather and father both worked on the Seaway. I saw roads that went down into the water that are all flooded now. Lots of ships still pass through the locks at Massena.
@@lindastevens3547 i spent a summer in Massena 1963 as a kid my dad working construction there...
@@lindastevens3547 Maybe my father worked with them or near them. He came home and went to work on the Chesapeake Bay and Tunnel complex.
No lasers, no electronic equipment and they got it done! Today we have to have a cushy cab with ac, stereo and joy stick controls, and if we get fatigued we have stress management classes. And a guy using a jackhammer! god forbid that today! "oh my back!", workmens comp claim here we go! And the the guy standing on the steel piling while its dropped! no way! today. Clint Eastwood said it best for this generation, "the pussie generation"
We still climb iron dude..
@@MitzvosGolem1 Good.
@@RomeKG471 not all American s pussy s.
Some goofy fake movie actor should come to Brooklyn up on steel and run his mouth call us "pussies"..lol
Hollywood is spoiled and make money on war movies violence yet quick to judge us..
Tell us not to fly drive have a gun yet they do..
Rubbish. Kids are still clever and tough when required. Try talking to some occasionally.
I have to agree this work would kill the majority of people living today.
I've transited the Seaway and it is an achievement of "pyramidal" proportions.
I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast. I started elementary school in the early 60s. Massive civil engineering projects like this were lightly touched on but the scale of such projects was not communicated. Being so far away it wasn't considered important? I plan seek out other documentaries on the St. L S.
With or without the reassuring tone of the voice of Cronkite, this could never be built today in North America.
Far too many people with corrupted intentions posing as global saviors would never permit it.
I couldn't imagine what it would be like getting past these same people to build the north way through the adirondacks.
Walter Cronkite 👍🏻
So where can we find people in the twenty-first century who are willing to even try to enunciate as clearly and distinctly as WALTER CRONKITE did? (I'm 77 and it would benefit me greatly if such people could be found.)
Roger Metzger When you start telling everyone they are mumbling, that's a sign you need to have a hearing test. You probably need a hearing aid.
@@653j521 I think Roger may have simply been saying that Walter Cronkite was an exceptional talent that isn't seen today.
@@booklover6753 You would be correct about that. (And I probably need some electronic device(s) to help me hear better.)
You certainly will not find them in today's so called "news services". Most of our reporters/journalist are too wrapped up in their social justice warrior idealogy and or their liberal or conservative politics. Personally I don't trust many of them at all.
the concrete vibrator at 12:15 was it air powerd or hydraulic?
The guy standing in that "boardroom" dramatization sounded like Don Adams (of "Get Smart" fame) but looked more like one of the guys who played Darrin Stevens in "Bewitched", though I'm not sure which one (Dick York or Dick Sargent). It isn't likely they had the budget for any of them, though.
Stay connected
a young Walter Cronkite?
Hi, working on a documentary of the area. I was wondering if someone could contact me about this footage, would love to see about getting it licensed for use. Thanks
Contact licensing via stock.periscopefilm.com
Brought to you by Caterpillar Tractor Co. Lotta tractors needed for this job alright lol
Walter Cronkite, the last honest news anchor.
Must see for any River Rat! Classic Walter Cronkite. 😁
"Every great civilization has had its root in the sea"
Laughs in mongolian
😂😂😂😂😂
@k1w1 fair enough. I laugh in russian then.
@k1w1 oh yes, absolutely. I'm an advocate and great fan of thalassocracies, from the phoenicians and greeks to modern Britain and the US. It just seemed a bit of a strech to claim that every great civilization has been rooted on the sea. It all depends on circumstances and the technology of the time. Great civilizations can flourish inland too.
Ah yes, the days of optimism and pride and the "Red Ensign!"
Maybe this is just an issue with UA-cam compression, but your blacks are crushed so details are lost in dark areas. Also, at 3:55, something really weird going on with the water
OH. MY. GAWD. UA-cam is racist! They crushed the blacks.
What did the workers call the black rocks out of frustration?
Are those tunnels under the canal at 13:00 still around?
Brought to you from the PAST, when collectively, we got shit done.
Imagine how different the great lakes shoreline would look if this work was never done.
Ok, now go back to your mindless video browsing and skipping commercials...
The Great Lakes wouldn’t be dying right now if this wasn’t constructed lol
Så små fraktskepp finns väl inte längre?
This is old school explainer video.
wasn't it a plan in the 60s to canal from the artic sea rivers to the center of canada and down to the mississippi? the other half to go thru the rocky mtn. trench to mexico?
Comfy