CONSTRUCTION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY “THE EIGHTH SEA“ 1958 WALTER CRONKITE FILM 66944

This color educational film is about ’The Eight Sea ’, the St. Lawrence Seaway. It was produced in 1958. Caterpillar Tractor Co. presents The Eighth Sea credits. Produced in cooperation with the St Lawrence Seaway Development Corp (:06-:29). Sea footage, old artist rendering of boats on the sea and how all cities had access to the sea. The landlocked great lakes. St. Lawrence River is featured. The flowing water, the obstacles, the rapids (:29-2:17). Men discuss a system of canals and locks(2:17-2:48). Walter Cronkite is shown and he talks about how things are being done on the St. Lawrence Seaway and power project. He explains how the Canadian government created a series of canals to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the great lakes. Giant ships in the canals. Cronkite explains what they can do to get giant vessels through (2:48-5:13). Ship enters a lock, workers get in position, gates are closed, water is pumped in, levels are made, ship can then go on its way. They explain how to move a ship from Montreal to the great lakes. Construction of a lock is shown. Excavation of rocks. River bed is made deeper. The map is shown. Ship canal carved out (5:13-8:59). Cronkite continues on. Larger locks, rapid troubles. Workers blast stone and work. Lots of construction footage (9:00-11:22). Water flows, mighty long sioux rapids, construction of second largest power dam. Largest copper dam. Concrete is made, a tunnel helps get workers through without disrupting the flow of water. Four million tons of concrete (11:22-14:33). Cronkite is featured again, he explains the two stages to making the dam/new canal (14:34-16:15). Earth that is being excavated, a system of dikes are being created. Iroquois, Canada is shown, they will have flooding due to construction so houses are being moved. Trees are cut down, roads moved, power lines built (16:16-18:38). Construction of the locks. Marine clay had to be removed. Glacial till also had to be removed. Winter caused till and clay even harder to remove. AFter a couple years, the locks began to take shape. Cronkite shows a detailed map with models, of what is being done (18:39-21:17). More rock/earth is being moved. The work is still being done and they are moving far towards the great lakes. Work on a new dam is shown (21:18-22:55). In order to bypass the dam, the last of seven locks is under construction. Obstacles are still in the way. Construction continues (22:56-24:29). A map of the excavated material is shown, more work with ships and cranes continues. Cronkite explains that the St. Lawrence Seaway and power project will be done in 1959. Farmers and steel works look forward to this. More tonnage than the Panama Canal will be moved through this (24:29-26:51). Hydroelectric power is discussed, Nova Scotia is shown. A new and eight sea is a sea of opportunity (26:52-27:47). The end credit is shown (27:48-27:58). Motion picture films don’t last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we’ve worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you’d like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit