Great Lakes Transportation

The Great Lakes and their connecting channels are of great importance in the national economy and the national defense. The steel industry of the United States was largely built up around lake transportation, and the Great Lakes also afford low-cost transportation for grain and coal. This paper is an attempt to outline the history and effects of lake transportation, the works built during a century for the benefit of navigation, and to describe the existing commerce and shipping. The combined Lake and rail movement of bulk commodities is shown to be efficient and economical. The system has been developed gradually through the co-operative effort of the Government, the railroads, industry, States, municipalities, and the owners and operators of vessels. It demonstrates that good engineering practice and sound business judgment, applied to plans laid down only so far ahead as definite benefits can be foreseen, can produce remarkable results.