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Perhaps, in our present day enthusiasm for the marvels of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and a tardy realization of the technical accomplishment and romantic history of the Rideau canal, we have tended to lose sight of the struggles associated with the early Welland. It lay in country which was far from the lush pastures of the hub of Upper Canada and, as it was completed before the St. Lawrence route was opened, traffic was American rather than Canadian; it was in this period that the ports of Cleveland on Lake Erie, and Oswego on Lake Ontario, reaped the early benefits of through navigation. The Welland canal was not deep and it handled rafts more easily than ships; there were, as yet, no specialized lake ships designed for the prevailing conditions. This was to come in the ensuing two decades, when the typical lake schooner with a flattish bottom, centreboard, short bowsprit and all her gear inboard, would start the path of development and design which would eventually lead to the marvels of modern inland shipping. More praise then to the foresighted men who started these great ventures. The Welland was financed by Upper Canada, Lower Canada, and the Imperial Government; alone among the Canadian canals it also attracted American venture capital at a crucial stage of financing.
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