Did you mean: St. Lawrence River (river, Canada/United States), St Lawrence River (Lyrics - David Usher)
| Dictionary: Saint Lawrence River |
| 5min Related Video: Saint Lawrence River |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Saint Lawrence River and Seaway |
For more information on Saint Lawrence River and Seaway, visit Britannica.com.
| US History Encyclopedia: Saint Lawrence River |
Saint Lawrence River, the largest river in North America, was explored between 1535 and 1541 by French explorer Jacques Cartier. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Saint Lawrence, with its tributary, the Ottawa River, and with the Great Lakes, formed the main water thoroughfare from the sea to the interior of the continent. Explorers and missionaries, including Samuel de Champlain and Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle, set forth from Quebec or Montreal for the west or the southwest. Fur trading brigades left Montreal bound for Mackinac, Grand Portage, Lake Winnipeg, and the Saskatchewan and Columbia rivers. The combatants in the colonial wars, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812 each found the use or mastery of the Saint Lawrence waterways worth the fight.
During the nineteenth century, shipping developed on the Great Lakes as communities grew up about their shores and beyond. With the completion of a deep channel from the head of the lakes down to Lake Ontario, and from Montreal to the sea, a movement grew in the first half of the twentieth century for the removal of the only remaining barrier: the 182-mile extent between Lake Ontario and Montreal. The result was the Saint Lawrence Seaway, begun in 1954 and opened in 1959.
Bibliography
Bosher, John Francis. The Canada Merchants, 1713–1763. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Eccles, William John. The French in North America, 1500–1783. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1998.
Mackey, Frank. Steamboat Connections: Montreal to Upper Canada, 1816–1843. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Saint Lawrence |
In its upper course the river cuts through a part of the Canadian Shield; there, just downstream from Lake Ontario, are the Thousand Islands. Below Cornwall, Ont., the river widens into Lake St. Francis. Shortly after, it widens again into Lake St. Louis then descends through the Lachine Rapids to Montreal, head of navigation for very large oceangoing vessels. Between Sorel and Trois Rivières is Lake St. Peter. Below the city of Quebec the river is tidal. It gradually increases in width to c.90 mi (140 km) at its mouth. The river's principal tributaries are the Richelieu (linking the St. Lawrence with Lake Champlain and the Hudson River), St. Francis, Ottawa, St. Maurice, and Saguenay rivers.
The St. Lawrence River is an important source of hydroelectric power; one of the world's largest facilities is the Beauharnois power plant near Montreal. Agreements between the United States and Canada govern power distribution and navigation in the international section of the river. The river's valley is an agricultural region; potatoes, grains, hay, vegetables, and dairy cattle are raised. The most important cities and ports along the St. Lawrence are Ogdensburg, N.Y.; Kingston, Brockville, and Cornwall, Ont.; and Montreal, Sorel, Trois Rivières, Quebec City, and Lévis, Que.
Canals have been constructed around the river's rapids, making the entire river navigable; however, the upper part is unnavigable during the winter months because of ice accumulation. The many bridges that cross the St. Lawrence River include the Thousand Islands International Bridge (1938), the Roosevelt International Bridge (1934), and the Seaway Skyway Bridge (1960), all between Ontario and New York; the Victoria Bridge (remodeled 1898) at Montreal; and the Quebec Bridge (1917), near Quebec City.
| Geography: St. Lawrence River |
River flowing northeast from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean. Ontario and Quebec, Canada, and New York state are along its banks.
| Wikipedia: Saint Lawrence River |
| Saint Lawrence River | |
|---|---|
 Map of the St. Lawrence/Great Lakes Watershed |
|
| Origin | Lake Ontario |
| Mouth | Gulf of Saint Lawrence/Atlantic Ocean |
| Basin countries | Canada (Ontario, Quebec) United States (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin) |
| Length | 1,197 km (744 mi) |
| Source elevation | 250 m (820 ft) |
| Avg. discharge | 10,400 m3/s (367,273 cu ft/s) |
| Basin area | 1,030,000 km2 (397,685 sq mi) |
The Saint Lawrence River (in French: fleuve Saint-Laurent; Kahnawáˀkye[1] in Tuscarora, Kaniatarowanenneh meaning big waterway in Mohawk) is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage of the Great Lakes Basin. It traverses the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and forms part of the international boundary between Ontario and other places in the U.S.A.
Contents |
The Saint Lawrence River originates at the outflow of Lake Ontario between Kingston, Ontario on the north bank, Wolfe Island in mid-stream, and Cape Vincent, New York.
From there, it passes Gananoque, Brockville, Ogdensburg, Massena, Cornwall, Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec City before draining into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the largest estuary in the world. The river runs 3,058 km (1,900 mi) from the furthest headwater to the mouth and 1,197 km (743.8 mi) from the outflow of Lake Ontario. The furthest headwater is the North River in the Mesabi Range at Hibbing, Minnesota. Its drainage area, which includes the Great Lakes and hence the world's largest system of fresh water lakes, has a size of 1,030,000 km2 (397,685 sq mi). The average discharge at the mouth is 10,400 m3/s (367,273 cu ft/s). The river includes Lake Saint-Louis south of Montreal, Lac Saint-François at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Lac Saint-Pierre east of Montreal. It encompasses three archipelagoes: the Thousand Islands chain near Kingston, Ontario; the Hochelaga Archipelago, including the Island of Montreal and Île Jésus (Laval); and the smaller Mingan Archipelago. Other islands include Île d'Orléans near Quebec City, and Anticosti Island north of the Gaspé.
Lake Champlain and the Ottawa, Richelieu, and Saguenay rivers drain into the St. Lawrence.
The Saint Lawrence River is in a seismically active zone where fault reactivation is believed to occur along late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic normal faults related to the opening of Iapetus Ocean. The faults in the area are rift related, which is called the Saint Lawrence rift system.
The Saint Lawrence Valley is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division, containing the Champlain and Northern physiographic section.[2]
The St. Lawrence estuary was visited by many navigators (such as John Cabot and Jacques Cartier) and Basque fishermen soon after the discovery of America (or perhaps even before, see Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact#Late contact claims). But the first known European explorer to sail the inland part of the St. Lawrence was Jacques Cartier, during his second trip to Canada in 1535, with the help of Iroquoian chief Donnacona's two sons. As he arrived in the estuary on St. Lawrence's feast day, Cartier accordingly named it the Gulf of St. Lawrence.[3] The land along the river was inhabited at the time by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. The St. Lawrence River is partly within the U.S. and as such is that country's sixth oldest surviving European place-name.[4]
Until the early 1600s, the French used the name Rivière du Canada to designate the Saint Lawrence upstream to Montreal and the Ottawa River after Montreal. The Saint Lawrence River served as the main route for European exploration of the North American interior, first pioneered by French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
Control of the river was crucial to British strategy to capture New France in the Seven Years' War. Having captured Louisbourg in 1758, the British sailed up to Quebec the following year thanks to charts drawn up by James Cook. British troops were ferried via the St. Lawrence to attack the city from the west, which they successfully did at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
Because of the virtually impassable Lachine Rapids, the St. Lawrence was once continuously navigable only as far as Montreal. Opened in 1825, the Lachine Canal was the first to allow ships to pass the rapids. An extensive system of canals and locks, known as the Saint Lawrence Seaway, was officially opened on 26 June 1959 by Queen Elizabeth II (representing Canada) and President Dwight D. Eisenhower (representing the United States of America). The Seaway now permits ocean-going vessels to pass all the way to Lake Superior.
During World War II, the Battle of the St. Lawrence involved a number of submarine and anti-submarine actions throughout the lower St. Lawrence River and the entire Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Strait of Belle Isle and Cabot Strait from May to October 1942, September 1943, and again in October and November 1944. During this time, German U-boats sank a number of merchant marine ships and three Canadian warships.
In the late 1970s, the river was the subject of a successful ecological campaign (called "Save the River"), originally responding to planned development by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The campaign was organized, among others, by Abbie Hoffman, then on the run under the pseudonym of Barry Freed.
Saint Lawrence River
The source of the North River in the Mesabi Range in Minnesota (Seven Beaver Lake) is considered to be the source of the Saint Lawrence River. Because it crosses so many lakes, the water system frequently changes its name. From source to mouth, the names are:
The St. Lawrence River is at the heart of many Quebec novels (Anne Hébert's Kamouraska, Réjean Ducharme's L'avalée des avalés), poems (in works of Pierre Morency, Bernard Pozier), and songs (Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, Michel Rivard's L'oubli). The river has also been portrayed in paintings, notably by the Group of Seven. In addition, the river is the namesake of Saint-Laurent Herald at the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
In 1980, Jacques Cousteau traveled to Canada to make two films on the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, Cries from the Deep and St. Lawrence: Stairway to the Sea.[7]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saint Lawrence River |
|
Coordinates: 48°25′25.1″N 69°0′57″W / 48.423639°N 69.01583°W
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Did you mean: St. Lawrence River (river, Canada/United States), St Lawrence River (Lyrics - David Usher)
 | Canadian-American Waterways |
| Fur Companies |
| Fur Trade and Trapping |
 | Are the St Lawrence River and the St Lawrence Seaway the same thing? Read answer... |
| Who mapped the st lawrence river? Read answer... |
| Who discovered the St Lawrence River? Read answer... |
 | How wide is the St Lawrence River? |
| Find the St Lawrence River? |
| What is the location of St lawrence river? |
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Geography. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Saint Lawrence River". Read more |
Mentioned in
.svg){kind=small}
