This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the St. Lawrence Seaway opening in 1959.

 

The seaway was officially opened in 1959. The cost of US$470 million was shared between the two national governments, with Canada paying $336 million and the United States $134 million. To recognize that disparity, revenues from operations are shared in that proportion.

 

The seaway's opening was officiated by Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As of 2005, it handled around 200 million tons annually. Most of the tonnage is such bulk commodities as grain, iron ore, coal, and steel. Finished goods are now primarily shipped in containers, and shipments inland from Montreal are handled more economically by rail.

 

The USS Macon traveled throughout the Great Lakes and stopped in Cleveland. 

 

http://www.britesites.com/macon.htm

 

 

and I was there:

 

 

The ship was at the E. 9th St Pier, you can see Captain Frank's at the end of E. 9th behind my sister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan...wow.  What a great story and wonderful photos! 

 

You look so innocent.  :angel:

Neat pics!

 

It's good to know that we can have a naval presence in the Great Lakes when we annex Canada.

Awesome!

based on the date of your pictures and how old you look, we're virtually the same age: old! Although I don't know why my parents didn't take me to see this. I guess they didn't love me as much :cry: Go figure. 

based on the date of your pictures and how old you look, we're virtually the same age: old! Although I don't know why my parents didn't take me to see this. I guess they didn't love me as much :'( Go figure. 

I wasn't even a twinkle in either of my parents eye at that time! 

 

Oh Don they loved you.  They just didn't say it, waaaaaaaaay back then!  LOL

This was most probably a Sunday afternoon, and maybe coincided with an Indians game.  I was 6, and that is my earliest recollection of being an Indian's fan.  That was a good season.  Tito hit .368 and Rocky had a great year.  I do remember sobbing later that year when he was traded.

Great pictures!

Yeah, I like the way you posted them too...with the white borders.  The contrast with the military hardware is sweet, too! 

 

 

 

 

hello kitty & her sailor friend say, "supercute!"

 

 

Each roll of developed film came in that little yellow book, each photo attached.  The date is of developing, no telling how long the film was actually in that Brownie camera!

 

Maybe we wouldn't have been so excited about the Seaway if we had known of the zebra mussel!

i was kind of up and down on the zebra mussel for a long time. they certainly cleaned up the lake water for awhile, it was amazing. but then the economy changed & all the heavy polluting industry died off, so we didn't really need the zebra mussel after all. certainly now they are solely pests.

During my time it was alewifes.  They had mass die-offs and they would bulldoze the beaches in Chicago to clean them off, into stinking piles of fish.

 

But we had fun going to Navy Pier to watch the foreign ships dock and unload...the last days before containerization, I guess.  When the they built the seaway they built an addition to Navy Pier to accept the ships, with a railroad spur and walkway on top of the warehouses so you could watch them unload on the wharf.

 

There were these little signs with arrows on the light poles on the walkway, with hand lettering and distances for foreign ports, which is what I guess they had those sailors from the ships do when they made port in Chicago.

 

 

Neat!

I forwarded these photos to the USS Macon web site.  Here is the response I received:

 

Dan,

 

Thanks - Excellent pictures of you and your sister.  They will be available for viewing by our shipmates at our upcoming reunion at Lancaster, PA in May.

 

I was on that trip to the great lakes on the Macon and it was a fabulous time for all Officers and Enlisted that was on board.  I noticed that you and your sister visited many parts of the ship.  I do remember that due to the large crowds that wanted to come aboard. general visiting was not allowed.  I hope that your tour on board was a pleasant memorable event for you both.

 

I will try in the near future to add your pictures on the web site along with others for the "Inland Sea Cruise".

 

Thanks again for the pictures,

 

Harold Foley

 

This was most probably a Sunday afternoon, and maybe coincided with an Indians game.  I was 6, and that is my earliest recollection of being an Indian's fan.  That was a good season.  Tito hit .368 and Rocky had a great year.  I do remember sobbing later that year when he was traded.

 

okay, I'm a teeny bit younger, but still no spring chicken like mts :roll: :roll: :roll: And if that was Sunday afternoon, my father was probably driving my much, much older sister back to nursing school at Metro General Hospital (is that now Metro Health?); I might have been in the car also but I had a tendency to be a disgruntled passenger even at age 5, so they might have left me home alone :cry: (but those are great pictures!)

The date on that snapshot.  I was four months old.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090406/NEWS16/904060308

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Article published April 6, 2009

 

Great Lakes-St. Lawrence ships bring economic gain, ecological pain

By TOM HENRY

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

Hailed as one of North America's greatest engineering feats, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway has drawn both praise and scorn in commemoration of its 50th anniversary this month.

 

Praise for the obvious: It connects America's heartland and some of Canada's most populous cities to the rest of the world while making it possible for regional goods to be transported more efficiently among the eight states and two provinces. Both have been a plus for North America's economy, though oceangoing vessels - even in today's era of global trade - make up only 10 percent of the ship traffic.

 

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Contact Tom Henry at:

[email protected]

or 419-724-6079.