In United States federal legislation theRivers and Harbors Act of 1916 provided Federal money for the maintenance and improvements of specified rivers and harbors across the United States.[1]
This act in particular aided theCape Fear River in North Carolina and theMississippi River in Arkansas. Most importantly, however, it authorized the scraping of a 21-foot-deep (6.4 m) shipping channel in theSt. Clair River on the border ofMichigan and Ontario, Canada, as well as including a provision to build a speed bump protruding several feet above the river bottom to slow the river's overall outflow. Since the St. Clair River formed the major northern part of theGreat Lakes Waterway with Lake St. Clair and theDetroit River in the south, with its mouth forming the largest river delta in North America, the project was intended to be of great importance, both in terms of prestige and in improving overall trade with Canada. TheWelland Canal between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, which allowed shipping traffic to bypassNiagara Falls, had been under construction since 1913, and the St. Clair project was seen as complementary to better connectLake Erie withLake Huron. While the foundation was laid, the project itself was never completed.
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