Passenger vessel Rapids Prince transits the Long Sault Rapids, near Cornwall, on the St

Long Sault was a

rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

in the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

upstream and west of

Cornwall, Ontario Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Central Canada, Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York (state), New York converge. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Unit ...

. ''Sault'' is the archaic spelling of the French word ''saut'', meaning rapids. The Long Sault created a navigation barrier along the river for much of its history, motivating the construction of the

Moses-Saunders Power Dam The Moses-Saunders Power Dam, short for Robert Moses- Robert H. Saunders Power Dam, is a dam on the Saint Lawrence River straddling the border between the United States and Canada. It is located between Massena in New York and Cornwall in Ontar ...

, part of the St. Lawrence Seaway, in the 1950s as the size of

ships A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

and the volume of shipping traffic along the river began to exceed the capacity of the area's

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

locks. The construction required the flooding of a large swath of land near the rapids to facilitate a

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

and to make the rapids area more navigable. The flooded region includes Ontario's Lost Villages. The

Long Sault Parkway The Long Sault Parkway is a group of eleven islands west of Cornwall in the Canadian province of Ontario, as well as the name of the scenic parkway connecting them. The islands, which include two public beaches and three campgrounds, were c ...

takes its name from the rapids.

References

Saint Lawrence Seaway Landforms of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Bodies of water of Ontario Rapids of Canada {{Ontario-river-stub

See also

References