Chapter 556

Later, the ten thousand ton ship from Europe or the ten thousand ton ship from Duluth, the westernmost end of Lake Superior, can freely enter and leave the five lakes through the famous "St. Lawrence channel".

The so-called St. Lawrence waterway refers to the general name of the artificial waterway system in the five lakes of North America and the St. Lawrence River.

This golden waterway from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the west can reach Duluth, the westernmost end of Lake Superior, with a total length of 3800 kilometers!

The contribution of this golden waterway is absolutely important for the United States to rise so rapidly and become the world's largest power.

But now, as the stone bear just said, neither the British nor the French nor the ships of other European powers can directly enter the Four Great Lakes west of Lake Erie from the Atlantic Ocean. Warships or other ships can only travel between Lake Ontario and the Atlantic Ocean.

The reason for this is the existence of the famous Niagara Falls.

Lake Erie is ninety-nine meters higher than Lake Ontario, and the Niagara River, which connects the two lakes, is fifty-six kilometers long.

Compared with the 56 km river course, if the drop of 100 meters is gentle, the average gradient of Niagara River is about 1.8 per thousand, which is not small but acceptable.

But the problem is that in the middle of the Niagara River, there is an insurmountable Niagara Falls. This famous waterfall, one of the three largest waterfalls in the world, has become a huge cutter in the middle of the Niagara River, which has cut off the river course and the whole St. Lawrence waterway.

Although Niagara Falls is beautiful and spectacular, it attracts tens of millions of people every year. But for shipping, this waterfall is a real devil.

Everyone knows how important it is to get through the whole St. Lawrence waterway, and if the distance between the Chicago River and the Illinois River is more than ten kilometers, you can really get to Shangjing or even New Orleans at the southernmost end of the Mississippi River by boat from the Atlantic Ocean.

In the original historical time and space, after the founding of the people's Republic of America, it took decades to excavate the Erie Canal to the east of the Niagara River, then the Welland canal to the west of the Niagara River, and then the Chicago canal to connect the Mississippi River with the Great Lakes region, It forms a huge shipping system covering two-thirds of the land area of the United States.

Even when the stone bear was crossing. This waterway system is still the most important inland waterway system in the United States.

Other people don't know the importance of this shipping system now. How can stone bear not know?

It is no exaggeration to say that even in later generations, this shipping system is no less important than the highway system of the United States.

It is because of this huge waterway system that the United States has been able to grow rapidly into the world's largest country in the past 100 years from the founding of the people's Republic of China to the end of World War I.

Therefore, the stone bear will not let go of this waterway system in any case.

Of course, in terms of the current strength of the Cherokee people, it is still far from enough to dig through the 584 km long Erie Canal. But if you just dig through less than 50 kilometers of land between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, it's not a big problem.

After all, the Chicago canal from Chicago to the Illinois River was ready for excavation before the winter of last year.

The Iroquois are destined to be defeated by the bear army. The whole five lakes area is destined to become the territory of the Cherokee people from the east to the Atlantic coast. Now we are going to excavate the artificial canal between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and we have to put it on the table this morning.

"Chief, do you mean we'll take advantage of this natural channel first, and then dig south?" Jorak Lulu asked in a low voice while recording the words of the stone bear.

"That's right. The river runs from here all the way north to Lake Ontario. It's about 15 kilometers long. We just need to widen and deepen the river so that it can be used. This will save us about a third of our resources and labor. Besides, look here... "

Stone bear pointed to the vast wasteland in front of him, "do you see the low-lying area here?"

Jorah krulu took the charcoal pen out of his book, looked up at the wasteland in front of him, nodded and said, "it seems that this place is much lower than other places."

The stone bear laughed, "this is really a depression. If we dig south with the help of this depression, once we reach Lake Erie, when the water of Lake Erie reaches here along the river we dug, a huge artificial lake will be formed here. This artificial lake can not only store water, but also regulate the water level, which is conducive to the navigation of ships. "

There are indeed two connected artificial lakes here in the later generations, the larger Gibson Lake in the East and the smaller moody Lake in the West.

In fact, the Welan canal of later generations was built with the help of this natural waterway from the very beginning. However, as the ships grew larger and larger, this natural waterway was no longer suitable, so an artificial canal with enough depth and width was dug northward from the east side of Gibson lake.

Later generations of Americans dug through the total length of 44 kilometers of the Welland canal. At the beginning, more than 40 wooden locks were used to regulate the water level, but the maintenance cost of the wooden locks was very high. With the continuous development of technology, there were still eight reinforced mud locks left on the canal.

The slope of Weilan canal is not small. It's good to say that it's downstream, but if it's upstream, it's really hard for ships to go. Therefore, the canal is bound to build locks.

However, it's not the stone bear's business. Now he only needs to provide a general plan and excavation route, and the rest will be handled by the people below.

Over the past few years, through the hands of the Fernando family and William hank, the Cherokees have been able to tap talents from Europe.

Now, in addition to the 18 Arhats, there are more than 200 talents from Europe. These people can't get along in Europe, and they have real talents, so they are abducted to the new world of North America by the Fernando family or baron hank.

However, these people are happy to go to Beijing. Stone bear attaches great importance to these people. As long as the tribe can provide them with what they need, they will be anxious for them first.

In Shangjing, these people who were starving to death in Europe are now able to eat well, dress well, sleep well, and have all kinds of delicious food, cigarettes, drinks and even women. They are not willing to leave Shangjing.

With these talents, the scientific research strength of the whole tribe has been greatly improved. The excavation of an artificial canal was presided over by two European talents.