Welland Canal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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.
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[edit] 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.
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. 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.
[edit] 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.
[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] Facts and Figures
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 | ||
| St. Catharines | Bridge 1 | Lakeshore Road (Regional Road 87) | |
| St. Catharines | Bridge 2 | Scott Street | Never installed |
| St. Catharines | Lock 2 | ||
| 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 | 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 | twinned flight locks |
|
| Thorold | Lock 7 | 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 1972 |
| 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 | control lock |
|
| Port Colborne | Bridge 19A | Mellanby Avenue (Regional Road 503) | |
| Port Colborne | Bridge 20 | Buffalo and Lake Huron Railroad (now Canadian National Railway) |
removed |
| Port Colborne | Bridge 21 | Clarence Street (Regional Road 68) |
[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 (Regional Road 29) | 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 (Regional Road 23) | vertical lift bridge, towers 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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