Welland Canal
The Welland Canal is a ship canal that runs 43.4
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.
Lock 3 of the Welland
Canal, with the Garden City Skyway bridge in
background.
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 navagation.
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.
History
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.
Aerial photo of Port Dalhousie
taken in 1920
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 in 1829, running 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, 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).
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. Along with this competition, boats were being built
bigger than the canal could support. 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.
Lock operations
Unlike with previous versions of the canal, ships using the current
canal move under their own power during their entire transit of the
Welland Canal and its locks. Once a vessel has been securely moored
in the lock chamber by a crew of Seaway linehandlers, the huge
steel lock gates close behind it and valves are put into operation
to fill or empty the lock by gravity flow. About 91 million litres
(20 million gallons) of water are required for each lock transit.
The time needed to fill a lock is approximately 11 minutes. As the
new level is reached, the forward gates are opened and, at a sign
from the spotter, a short blast of the ship's whistle signals "cast
off" and the vessel proceeds out of the lock.
Issue #286
