Ebook: A Respectable Ditch: A History of the Trent-Severn Waterway, 1833-1920

The Trent-Severn Waterway took almost ninety years to build, cost over $24 million, and contains some remarkable engineering feats -as well as a few spectacular mistakes. The passage of the first boat through the waterway in July 1920 marked the realization of a dream that was older than the nation itself. The dream was to connect Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay with a navigable watercourse that would be shorter and more protected than the longer route through the Great lakes. In detailing the history of the Trent-Severn Waterway's construction, James Angus provides an intriguing picture of the complex operation of local, provincial, and national politics, showing how the perceptions, intrigues, selfish interests, and national dreams of nineteenth-century politicians led to the construction of a canal that the country could ill-afford.