Welland Canal

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A ship transits the Welland Canal, with the Homer Lift Bridge and Garden City Skyway in background.

The Welland Canal is a ship canal that runs 42 km (27.0 mi) from Port Colborne, Ontario on Lake Erie to Port Weller, Ontario on Lake Ontario. As part of the St. Lawrence Seaway, it allows ships to avoid Niagara Falls by traversing the Niagara Escarpment.

Approximately 40,000,000 metric tonnes of cargo is carried through the Welland Canal annually by over 3,000 ocean and lake vessels. It was a major factor in the growth of the city of Montreal. The original canal and its successors allowed goods from Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Ohio and other heavily industrialized areas of the United States and Ontario to be shipped to the port of Montreal where they were reloaded onto ocean-going vessels for international shipping.

The completion of the Welland Canal made the Trent-Severn Waterway (which links Lake Ontario with Lake Huron) all but obsolete as a commercial traffic route for Great Lakes navigation.

The Port Weller (east, compass north, at Lake Ontario) end of the canal is 99.5 m (326.5 ft) lower than the Port Colborne (west, compass south, on Lake Erie) end. There are eight locks, each 24.4 m (80 ft) by 233.5 m (766 ft). Due to the Garden City Skyway, the maximum ship height allowed is 35.5 m (116.5 ft) (all other crossings are lift bridges or tunnels). Maximum length is 225.5 m (740 ft), and it takes an average of 11 hours to travel between the two ends.

1 History
2 1974 Accident
3 2001 Accident
4 Shipping Season
5 Facts and Figures
6 List of locks and crossings
- 6.1 Old alignment prior to Welland By-Pass relocation
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

A lock of the second Welland Canal

Prior to the building of the canal, traffic between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie used a portage road between Queenston and Chippawa, both points on the Niagara River on opposite sides of Niagara Falls.

The Welland Canal Company was incorporated in 1824 by William Hamilton Merritt, in part to provide a regular flow of water for his mills. Construction began at Allanburg on November 30, at a point now marked as such on the west end of Bridge #11 (former Ontario Highway 20). It opened for a trial run on November 30th 1829 ( Exactly 5 years, to the day, of the 1824 sod turning ). After a short ceremony at lock one in Port Dalhousie, the schooner Annie & Jane made the first historic crossing, upbound to Buffalo N.Y.; with a proud Merritt, a passenger on her decks. The 1rst canal ran from Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario south along Twelve Mile Creek to St. Catharines. From there it took a winding route up the Niagara Escarpment through Merritton to Thorold, where it continued south via Allanburg to Port Robinson on the Welland River. Ships went east on the Welland River to Chippawa, the south end of the portage road.

A southern extension from Port Robinson opened in 1833. This extension followed the Welland River south to Welland ( Known then as the settlement of Aqueduct, for the wooden aqueduct that let the canal pass over the Welland River at that point ), and then split to run south to Port Colborne on Lake Erie. A feeder canal ran southwest from Welland to another point on Lake Erie, just west of Rock Point. With the opening of the extension, the canal stretched 44 km (27 mi) between the two lakes, with 40 wooden locks. The minimum lock size was 33.5 m by 6.7 m (110 ft by 22 ft), with a minimum canal depth of 2.4 m (8 ft).

Abandoned locks of the third canal

Aerial photo of Port Dalhousie from the third canal era. 3rd canal lock at left, 2nd canal lock at right

In 1839 the government of Upper Canada approved a purchase of canal stock due to financial problems. This buyout was completed in 1841, and work began to deepen the canal and reduce the number of locks to 27, each 45.7 m (150 ft) by 8.1 m (26.5 ft). By 1848 a 2.7 m (9 ft) deep path was available not only through the Welland Canal but also the rest of the way to the Atlantic Ocean via the route of the current St. Lawrence Seaway.

Competition came in 1854 with the opening of the Erie and Ontario Railway, running parallel to the original portage road. In 1859 the Welland Railway opened, parallel to the canal and with the same endpoints ( But this railway was affiliated with the canal, and was actually used to help transfer cargoes from the lake ships (Which were too large for the small canal locks), to the other end of the canal* {*Smaller ships called "canallers" also took a part of these loads} ). Due to this problem, it was soon apparent that the canal would have to be enlarged again. In 1887 a new shorter alignment was completed between St. Catharines and Port Dalhousie. The new route had a depth of 4.3 m (14 ft) and 26 stone locks, each 82.3 m (270 ft) by 13.7 m (45 ft). Even so, the canal was still too small for many boats.

More construction began in 1913 and was not completed until 1932. The route was again changed north of St. Catharines, now running directly north to Port Weller. Only eight locks remained, seven at the Niagara Escarpment and the eighth a control lock at Port Colborne to control the depth of the canal. The depth was now 7.6 m (25 ft), with locks 233.5 m (766 ft) by 24.4 (80 ft).

In the 1950s, with the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway, a depth of 8.2 m (27 ft) was adopted. From 1967 to 1973, the 13.4 km (8.3 mi) Welland By-Pass opened, providing a new shorter alignment between Port Robinson and Port Colborne and bypassing downtown Welland. All three crossings of the new alignment - one an aqueduct for the Welland River - were built as tunnels. Around the same time, the Thorold Tunnel was built at Thorold and several other bridges were removed. These projects would be tied into a proposed new canal, titled the Fifth Welland Canal, which was planned to bypass most of the existing canal to the east and cross the Niagara Escarpment in one large superlock. While land for the project was expropriated and the design finalized, the project never got past the initial construction stages and has since been shelved. The present ( 4th )canal is scheduled to be replaced by 2030, almost exactly 100 years after it first opened, and 200 years since the first full shipping season in 1830, of the original canal.

[edit] 1974 Accident

On August 25, 1974, the ore-carrier Steelton struck the vertical lift bridge Bridge 12 in Port Robinson, Ontario while northbound. The bridge was rising and the impact knocked the bridge over, destroying it. No one was killed. The bridge was not replaced and Port Robinson has been served by a ferry for many years. For details, see the article for Port Robinson, Ontario. The Welland Public Library archive has images of the aftermath.

[edit] 2001 Accident

On August 11, 2001, while traveling through the Welland Canal, the steamer Windoc collided with Bridge 11 in Allanburg, Ontario. The accident produced a large fire on board, shredding the lift-bridge, and tearing the bridge off the vessel. No serious injuries were reported.

[edit] Shipping Season

The Welland Canal closes at some time in the winter when ice or weather conditions are a hazard to navigation. The Canal re-opens in spring when the waters are once more safe. In 2007, the Canal opened on the earliest date in its history, March 20, just hours ahead of the vernal equinox. The Welland Public Library archive has images.

[edit] Facts and Figures

Lock 3 Observation Centre of the current Welland Canal (facing North).

Maximum Vessel Size:

Length: 225.5 m
Draft: 8.2 m
Height/Above water clearance: 35.5m

Locks:

Size: 24.4 m wide and 261.8 long, depth of 9.1 m
Current number of locks: 8
Elevation change between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie: 99.4 m
Takes on average 11 hours to travel between the 2 lakes.
Length of Canal: 43.5 km

First Canal

Built: 1829
Number Of Locks: 40
Width Of Locks: 6.7m
Length Of Locks: 33.5m
Depth Of Canal: 2.4m

Second Canal

Built: 1845
Number Of Locks: 27
Width Of Locks: 8.1m
Length Of Locks: 45.7m
Depth Of Canal: 2.7m

Third Canal

Built: 1887
Number Of Locks: 26
Width Of Locks: 13.7m
Length Of Locks: 82.3m
Depth Of Canal: 4.3m

Fourth Canal

Construction occurred: 1913 to 1932;
Number Of Locks: 8;
Width Of Locks: 24.4m;
Length Of Locks: 261.8m;
Depth Of Canal: 8.2m

[edit] List of locks and crossings

Locks and crossings are numbered from north to south.

Municipality	Lock or bridge number ^†	Crossing	Remarks
St. Catharines	Lock 1		43.217484° N 79.212992° W
St. Catharines	Bridge 1	Lakeshore Road (Regional Road 87)
St. Catharines	Bridge 2	Scott Street	Never installed
St. Catharines	Lock 2		43.193131° N 79.202178° W
St. Catharines	Bridge 3A	Carlton Street (Regional Road 83)	Replaced original Bridge 3 (destroyed in accident)
St. Catharines	Bridge 4A	Garden City Skyway: Queen Elizabeth Way
St. Catharines	Bridge 4	Queenston Street (Regional Road 81) (former Highway 8)	also known as "Homer Lift Bridge"
St. Catharines	Lock 3		43.155230° N 79.193058° W location of Welland Canal Information Centre
St. Catharines	Bridge 5	Glendale Avenue (Regional Road 89)
Thorold	Bridge 6	Great Western Railway (Ontario) (now Canadian National Railway)
Thorold	Locks 4-5-6		43.134283° N 79.191899° W twinned flight locks
Thorold	Lock 7		43.123446° N 79.193895° W southernmost lift over the Niagara Escarpment
Thorold	Bridge 7	Hoover Street	removed
Thorold	Bridge 8	Niagara Central Railway (now Canadian National Railway)	removed
Thorold		Thorold Tunnel, carries Highway 58
Thorold	Bridge 9	Ormond Street	removed
Thorold	Bridge 10	Welland Railway (now Canadian National Railway)	removed
Thorold	Bridge 11	Canboro Road (Regional Road 20) (former Highway 20)	struck by Windoc in 2001
Thorold	Bridge 12	Bridge Street (Regional Road 63)	destroyed by Steelton in 1974
Welland		Main Street Tunnel: (Regional Road 27/Highway 7146)
Welland		Townline Tunnel: Highway 58A and Canadian National Railway/Penn Central
Port Colborne	Bridge 19	Main Street (Regional Road 3) Highway 3
Port Colborne	Lock 8		42.899122° N 79.246166° W control lock
Port Colborne	Bridge 19A	Mellanby Avenue (Regional Road 3A)
Port Colborne	Bridge 20	Buffalo and Lake Huron Railroad (now Canadian National Railway)	removed
Port Colborne	Bridge 21	Clarence Street

[edit] Old alignment prior to Welland By-Pass relocation

Municipality	Bridge Number ^†	Crossing	Remarks
Welland Recreational Waterway branches off from the Welland By-Pass at Port Robinson
Thorold		Canadian National Railway	built during the relocation
Thorold		Highway 406	built after the relocation
Welland		Woodlawn Road (Regional Road 41)	built after the relocation
Welland	Bridge 13	East Main Street/West Main Street (Regional Road 27)	vertical lift bridge, counterweights removed
Welland		Division Street (Regional Road 527)	built after the relocation
Welland	Bridge 14	Lincoln Street	rebuilt as fixed-span after the relocation
Welland	Bridge 15	Canada Southern Railway (Penn Central)	rare Baltimore truss swing bridge [1]
Welland	Bridge 16	Ontario Road/Broadway Avenue	rebuilt as fixed-span after the relocation, the new span located to the north of the original site of Bridge 16
cut by western approaches to Townline Tunnel (Highway 58A and Canadian National Railway/Penn Central)
Welland	Bridge 17	Canada Air-Line Railway (now Canadian National Railway)	vertical lift bridge, counterweights still present
Welland	Bridge 18	Forks Road	vertical lift bridge, towers and counterweights removed
Welland Recreational Waterway merges with the Welland By-Pass at Ramey's Bend in Port Colborne

^† If assigned by the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority. The original bridges across the fourth canal were numbered in order. Numbering was not changed as bridges were removed.