- Behind me is the Saint Lawrence Seaway, one of the largest public works projects in North America's history.
The seaway was a 1950s expansion of small canals and waterways into a huge, navigable path for shipping between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes, along with massive hydroelectric power plants.
That expansion came at a cost, though.
The water is high today, but when it's low you can still see the foundations of Aultsville, Ontario, one of the lost villages that were flooded to make way for progress.
The residents were told that they had to move and see their old town demolished and then drowned beneath new, higher water.
They didn't really have any choice in the matter.
And then some scientists came along and said: if these homes are going to be demolished and then flooded anyway, can we set them on fire first?
- The St. Lawrence Burns was a project where they were trying to study how fires develop in buildings, specifically how it affects the survival of the occupants, as well as how fire spreads from one building to another.
The researchers were scientists from the Building Research Division of the National Research Council of Canada.
They burned a total of eight buildings, including six single-family dwelling homes, one two-story school, and one community hall.
