Proposed Canal, Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Histoic Site

Engineers designed ambitious plans to bypass the rapids. The first proposal for a lock on the Canadian side of the river was in the 1830s, however plans changed and construction did not begin until 1889.

In 1846 the government of the Province of Canada sent Hamilton Hartly Killaly, a government civil engineer, to report on the feasibility of a ship canal on the north side of the river. His plan, depicted here, shows a proposed canal route on the north side of St. Mary’s Island, between the island and the mainland. At the bottom of the plan he lays out the elevation changes along this route. Despite these early plans, the Americans completed their shipping canal first in 1855; all traffic between Lake Huron and Lake Superior passed through the American canal for the next 40 years.