Concept
The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Ontario, Canada, and part of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway. The canal traverses the Niagara Peninsula between Port Weller on Lake Ontario, and Port Colborne on Lake Erie, and was erected because the Niagara River—the only natural waterway connecting the lakes—was unnavigable due to Niagara Falls. The Welland Canal enables ships to ascend and descend the Niagara Escarpment, and has followed four different routes since it opened. The Welland Canal passes about 3,000 ships which transport about of cargo a year. It was a major factor in the growth of the city of Toronto, Ontario. The original canal and its successors allowed goods from Great Lakes ports such as Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago, as well as other heavily industrialized areas of the United States and Ontario, to be shipped to the Port of Montreal or to Quebec City, where they were usually reloaded onto ocean-going vessels for international shipping. The Welland Canal in use today is the Fourth Welland Canal. The First Welland Canal was excavated wide and deep from 1824–1829 with forty wooden locks and commenced operation on November 30, 1829. The Second Welland Canal began excavation in 1841 and was wider at and deeper at with larger locks made of stone to replace the wooden locks used in the first canal. It was wider and deeper than the first to provide access for larger ships up to long. The Second Welland Canal was completed in 1845 and remained in operation for nearly a century before closing permanently in 1935. The Third Welland Canal was designed to follow a straighter and thus shorter route than the first two and began construction in 1872 through 1887. It was wide and deep, with 26 masonry locks lined with wood to protect ships rubbing against the sides or bottom. The Third Canal locks were again larger being wide and long. The canal permitted access to larger ships with the Third Canal operating from 1887 until 1935 along with the still operating Second Welland Canal.
