T

HE one unnavigable link in the chain of lakes and rivers between the thriving, productive Northwest and the equally thriving and reciprocally productive East occurs at Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, where, in the rapids of the Saint Mary's River, the waters of Lake Superior drop eighteen feet to flow into the lakes of Michigan and Huron. Grain and iron ore feed the gaping maws of the Eastern market, while coal renders the severely cold Northwest habitable, runs its manufactories, and fires the smelters of its mining districts.

At the present time there are three locks for lowering ships from the Lake Superior to the Lake Huron level or elevating upbound vessels. On an average, one hour and fifty-nine minutes are required to "lock" a boat, including passage through the canal. But there is often considerable delay owing to congestion arising from fogs and other non-preventable causes. Immediately after the severe fogs clear away sufficiently for safe navigation ships hasten to the locks in

such large numbers from both directions that the three available locks, although operating at their utmost capacity, cannot meet the sudden rush, and late arrivals must often wait eight to ten hours for their turns. For at the locks a strict rule of "First come, first served" prevails. When it is mentioned that each minute that a loaded ore-carrier lies idle costs the better part of a dollar, one can readily appreciate the incentive which has actuated the United States Government to relieve this congestion and, incidentally, facilitate the normal handling of Great Lakes traffic by building the two largest locks in the world.

We have been hearing so much about Panama lately that the vital importance of these new locks at Sault Sainte Marie has been shamefully overlooked. In effect, Panama will probably never....compass in actual net tonnage the traffic of the locks at Sault Sainte Marie. In 1912, 72,472,675 tons of freight, valued at $791,357,837, were locked through by 22,778 boats. In 1855,

when the first of the American locks was constructed, 193 boats carried 14,503 tons. In 1887, 5,494,649 tons, worth $79,031,757, were registered. In other words, ten times the value of freight was handled in 1912 that was handled twenty-five years previous, and fifteen times the amount in tonnage. Judg ing from these figures and others that I will give in other parts of this article, it is quite safe to estimate the amount of freight annually transported through the locks in a few yearspossibly ten at 100,000,000 tons, with an approximate valuation of more than a billion dollars. This estimate, I repeat, is a conservative one.

For each decade the percentage of yearly increase and the total tonnage have been as follows:

Years. Percentage increase.

Tons.

1,203,358 4,829,247 14,868,639 80,343,218 253,002,697 441,837,790 796,084,949

Total.... By yearly stages the tonnage has increased in average bounds of twenty per cent.

This, then, is the cause, while the two largest locks in the world are the effect. They will not be as wide nor as deep as the famous Gatun or Pedro Miguel, but they will be longer by 300 feet. Each will be 1,350 feet in length, 80 feet in width, 50 feet in depth, while 25 feet of water will

flow over the sills at the low level. They will accommodate two of the longest freighters on the lakes, end to end, and it is a fact worthy of mention that the longest of Great Lakes freighters are longer by far than the world's greatest dreadnoughts. Six-hundredfooters were anticipated and have arrived on the Great Lakes, as one-thousand-footers Iwere looked for and will no doubt appear upon the Atlantic shortly.

In 1912 the Colonel J. Schoonemaker, 617 feet in length, carried a record-breaking cargo of 13,511 tons. In that year she traveled 46,835 miles, or nearly twice the distance of the earth's circumference. Great Lakes freighters have an individuality and personality as striking and distinctive, not to mention an absolute appropriateness for their use, as craft plying well-known waters in any part of the world; e.g., the transatlantic liner, the Japanese sampan, the Arctic whaler, the junk of the Yangtsekiang. The lake carrier was created to meet an exacting demand-titanic capacity, availability for rapid cargo handling, seaworthiness, and speed. The refined, composite result of years of experimentation is an extremely long and slender steel shell, of which an almost negligible portion is taken up by engine and quarters. It typifies exactly the ultimate economy and efficiency of time-tried American business methods. Whalebacks and other "revolutionary" freaks have demonstrated their impracticability and are rapidly passing.

Construction difficulties in the new locks

SHOWING THE INCREASE IN THE USE OF "" THE "SOO LOCKS

only slightly resemble those of Panama. There have been no serious rock slides to speak of, the greatest difficulty encountered having been to keep the work clear of the water which constantly seeps in. One contractor has already lost more than two

WEITZEL LOCK 515'x80' 1881

PANAMA LOCKS 1050 x 110 1914

From the Mesaba, Michigan, and other Lake Superior iron ranges nearly 50,000,000 tons of ore were shipped by boat in 1912. In the course of the past twenty years two pairs of twin cities, each enjoying conservative and apparently lasting booms, have arisen from rugged frontier villages, due to no other cause whatever than that they are logical outlet points for grain and ore, and inlet points for coal from the Eastern fields. These are Duluth, Minnesota, and, just across the St. Louis River, Superior, Wisconsin; also Fort William, Ontario, with which a close neighbor, Port Arthur, will

ultimately be joined, according to the present trend of their growth.

It is not amiss to record, in passing, the enormous amount of iron taken from the

Duluth ranges in one year. In 1912 38,000,000 tons were mined, valued at the docks in Duluth at $4 a ton. Comparing this with an output of $96,000,000 for all of the gold of the United States and Alaska, one gains an idea of the fabulous wealth of