The 1959 opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway as “the world’s longest inland deep draft marine highway” forever changed Quebec’s geographic, economic, and political landscapes. It was one of the great engineering projects of the 20th century, displacing more than twice as much earth as the building of the Suez Canal did a century before. But the Seaway was not just a post-war initiative. Inter-governmental discussions for the “St. Lawrence Waterway Project” dated back as far as the 1890s. The desire to access the interior of the North American continent with ocean-going vessels started centuries earlier. In 1689 François Dollier de Casson, a Sulpician priest, was the first to start digging to circumvent the Lachine Rapids. With a focus on both geography and biography, this tale will be told through the diverse and driven personalities who worked to reshape the rivers and lakes of Quebec and beyond for navigation.
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A public livestream (no registration needed) of this presentation will also be broadcast simultaneously on www.facebook.com/QAHNCanada/
About our speaker:
Mark Gallop spent three decades in the investment and financial services sector, and now devotes his time to historical research, writing, and lecturing. He is a Trustee of the Mount Royal Cemetery, a past President of the Atwater Library, and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He divides his time between New Brunswick and Quebec.
To view the entire 2022-2023 Heritage Talks program, click here!