The Golden Dream

Download or read book The Golden Dream written by Ronald Stagg and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early twentieth century a movement flourished in the Midwestern states bordering the Great Lakes to champion the St. Lawrence route as the answer to easily transporting goods in and out of the centre of the continent. Internal rivalries in the United States and Canada held back the project for fifty years until Canada suddenly decided to build a seaway alone, pressuring the American Congress to co-operate. The building of the Seaway and its completion in 1959, involved engineering on an unprecedented scale and significant human dislocation. During construction, communities along the Great Lakes planned for increased prosperity, but changes in transportation, aging infrastructure, and environmental problems have mean that "the Golden Dream" has not been fully realized, even today. This popular history chronicles the rise of one of the great engineering projects in Canadian history and its controversial impact on the people living along the St. Lawrence River.