Welland Canal

The Niagara Escarpment drops about a hundred metres between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, which is what creates the falls and what made the lakes unnavigable to each other. The Welland Canal solves it with eight locks over forty-three kilometres, lifting ships around ninety-nine and a half metres. The present canal is the fourth, opened in 1932. Ships up to about two hundred and twenty-five metres pass through, and at Lock 3 in St. Catharines a raised viewing platform puts spectators level with the deck of a laker as it rises; a screen posts the shipping schedule. Around three thousand vessels transit each year.

History

Before the canal, cargo between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie went round Niagara Falls on a portage road from Queenston to Chippawa. The Welland Canal Company, among whose petitioners was William Hamilton Merritt, was incorporated in 1824, the first canal opened for a trial run on 30 November 1829, when the schooner Anne & Jane made the first passage, and with the extension to Port Colborne in 1833 it ran 44 km with 40 wooden locks; the government bought out the company in 1841 and rebuilt the canal with cut-stone locks, the first of the canal's later routes (Wikipedia, Welland Canal).

What's there

• The lift - freighters rising almost a hundred metres over eight locks.
• The Lock 3 platform - a viewing deck level with passing ship decks.
• The shipping schedule - a posted board showing what is coming and when.
• The canal museum - the four canals and their construction history.

When to go

April to December, the navigation season; the canal closes for winter when ice shuts the seaway. Check the ship schedule before going, since gaps of hours between vessels are normal.

What to expect

Without checking the schedule you may wait a long time for a ship. A single lock transit takes around forty-five minutes. The canal is closed entirely from about January to March.

Nearby

Niagara-on-the-Lake lies east; Niagara Falls is southeast.

Key facts