Customer Reviews

The St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project: An Oral History of the Greatest Construction Show on Earth

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I grew up about 30 miles from the project while it was under construction. The book brought back memories of the headlines in the local papers at the time. The book also enlightened me on Snell's dedication to the project. I was vaguely aware of the international cooperation required to bring it off but the book really highlights that. I knew guys who worked on it though I was too young to do so. The interviews run the gamut from laborers to engineers/supervisors so it give a good cross sectional view of the work that was done.

Excellent book - gives a great deal of the history of the building of the Seaway Power Project. The book outlines several people who lived in that era- their life and times and hardships. Many stories from those who worked on the project. Makes you want to just keep reading story after story.

Having recently dealt with the Ringling Bros. - B & B Circus, I can't help avoiding the allusion... I listened today (24 May 09) to part of an interview with the author. WVCR Sienna College Radio. My old man was up there on that project. I have one of the wool coats he wore then. This will be his Father's Day gift.

The summers of my childhood were spent on the St. Lawrence River. I still have many memories of what that period of time felt like when the Seaway Project changed the pace of the river forever. I remember seeing and hearing the dynamite explosions in front of the cottage at Hamilton's Island and the fishermen rushing out in their little fishing boats to scoop the stunned fish. The St. Lawrence was a mighty river at one time - now tamed. Over time my favorite old reed beds, where I used to row my boat out to and lose myself inside those walls of green and felt so closed off to the world, were changed forever. When the huge oceangoing ships passed by my old fishing grounds, the very speed of these big boats and the displacement, eventually affected all that I had known. I miss those days of so many years ago, when life felt simpler and more innocent.