Page 2 - Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site

TRENT-SEVERN
WATERWAY
NATIONAL
HISTORIC SITE
Unprecedented investment to improve
and rehabilitate infrastructure
t’s interesting to consider what the builders of
the Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic
Site—who spent years of manual labour to
Icreate the massive lock system to facilitate
transportation of lumber to supply the construction
boom in lower Ontario—would think of their
creation if they could see it today.
While still a crucial transportation link for the region,
it’s hard to imagine they would have foreseen
thousands of people in non-motorized boats
enjoying the breathtaking scenery of the region.
But that’s the reality of the modern Trent-Severn
2 3
Waterway. Its value has evolved to incorporate
more than just transportation, but also recreational
value that trickles down through the community in
tourism dollars.
“The construction of the Trent-Severn Waterway
would have started in about the 1830s, continued
over a 100-year period,” says Jewel Cunningham,
Executive Director for Ontario and Waterways
Parks Canada. “When it was originally conceived,
it was really intended to be a navigable waterway
for the movement of wood as part of the timber
industry of Ontario, which was very prevalent at
that time in Algonquin Park.”