Geography & Travel
Northwest Passage
trade route, North America
Northwest Passage, historical sea passage of the North American continent. It represents centuries of effort to find a route westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic Archipelago of what became Canada. The quest for the passage was one of the world’s severest maritime challenges. The route is located 500 miles (800 km) north of the Arctic Circle and less than 1,200 miles (1,930 km) from the North Pole. It consists of a series of deep channels through Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, extending about 900 miles (1,450 km) from east to west, from north of Baffin Island ...(100 of 1091 words)