The Welland Canal will open for its 76th year of operation on March 20, matching last year's earliest opening of the shipping season.

The Welland Ship Canals

Links in the World's Greatest Inland Waterway

Great as are the advantages afforded Canada by the St. Lawrence system of lakes and rivers, they could never be fully realized were it not for the series of canals started over a hundred years ago, and gradually improved since, between the Great Lakes and Montreal, chiefly amongst them the Welland Canals connecting Lake Erie with Lake Ontario.

Champlain, La Salle, Joliette and other early explorers braved death and starvation to find a short water passage to the Orient by the St. Lawrence River and the great inland lakes of the North American Continent. Their followers were more concerned with a waterway outlet for the constantly increasing production of raw furs and other merchandise beyond the Great Lakes.

Fur trading Voyageurs

Before them stood mighty Niagara Falls, presenting an insurmountable barrier and standing as though on guard at the entrance to the Great Lakes.

Neither up nor down these falls could any craft pass and resort had to be had to the laborious task of portaging from Queenston, on the Niagara River, to Chippawa Creek. Even with the birch bark canoe carrying the minimum of baggage and supplies, this was a trying task for men of the strongest physique. When the settlement of the upper country added to the water-borne traffic and necessitated the use of larger craft, it became imperative that the Welland Canal should be constructed if the country were not to be retarded in its development.

THE FIRST WELLAND CANAL

For more than a century a Welland Canal has connected Lake Erie with Lake Ontario, thereby providing one of the principal links in the chain of water transportation extending from Fort William and Port Arthur to the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of over 2,200 miles, the Grain Lane to Europe.

The people of Canada have always attached to the building of the Welland Canal a significance greater than that which usually surrounds an engineering work of such magnitude. This is due not altogether to the tremendous importance of the Welland Canal in the commerce of the Dominion nor to the revenue Canada derives from the constantly increasing production of wheat beyond the Great Lakes, but to the fact that the Falls of Niagara have always been the subject of a peculiar and reverent admiration, and the work of man that overcame the obstacles presented by such an imposing phenomenon of nature, must naturally be surrounded by an atmosphere of importance that would be denied to works with less stupendous setting.

The rapids in the St. Lawrence could be overcome by towing or by comparatively short portages, but the tumbling cataracts of Niagara defied such easy conquest. The 27 miles that separated the waters of Lake Erie from those of Lake Ontario constituted almost insurmountable barriers to water communication between the Upper Lakes and the sea. The construction of an artificial waterway connecting the two lakes thus marked an epoch in the industrial progress of Upper Canada.

It is difficult to state definitely who first proposed the construction of the Welland Canal. It suffices to know that the first step towards the practical solution of the Niagara Falls problem was taken in 1816. At that time Colonel Robert Nichol succeeded in introducing to the parliament of Upper Canada a Bill providing funds for a survey of the different water routes between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and between Lake Ontario and what was then called Lower Canada. But the measure never became law and it remained for the inhabitants of the Niagara district under the inspiration and energetic leadership of the Honourable William Hamilton Merritt to found the Welland Canal Company and build the First Welland Canal as a private enterprise.

On November 30, 1924, there was unveiled at Allanburg, Ontario, a cairn marking the spot where one hundred years before the first sod of the Welland Canal was turned by Mr. George Keefer, President of the Welland Canal Company.

Unveiling at Port Robinson

The canal traversed the valley of the Twelve Mile Creek from Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario to Port Robinson on the Chippawa Creek, from which point vessels navigated down the creek to the Niagara River and thence ascended to Lake Erie. It had 39 wooden locks, each 110 feet in length, 22 feet in width, with 8 feet of water on the sills. The summit level, higher than Lake Erie, was supplied by a feeder canal from the Grand River at Dunnville.

This canal was completed in 1829, when two schooners, the Anne and Jane of York, Upper Canada (Toronto), and the R. H. Boughton of Youngstown, Ohio, were taken through the waterway. By 1833, an extension from Port Robinson to Port Colborne on Lake Erie was completed, but the summit level was still supplied from the Grand River. This route had a length of 27 1/2 miles from lake to lake.

 

THE SECOND WELLAND CANAL

In 1837 the Government of Upper Canada, which had loaned considerable money to the private company owning the first Welland Canal, converted its loans into stock and in 1841 purchased the entire canal from the private stockholders.

The Government decided at once to enlarge the canal to provide for 9-foot navigation and to complete the St. Lawrence Canals, which were necessary to skirt the several rapids between Lake Ontario and Montreal.

The 39 wooden locks were reduced to 27 by increasing the lifts of each. The new locks were built of cut stone and were each 150 feet long and 263/2 feet wide, with 9 feet of water on the sills. The improvement was begun in 1842. It was completed and the canal was opened in 1845. This, together with the construction of the Port Maitland branch, opened up a new and shorter route to Lake Erie. The section of the canal between the feeder junction (Welland) and Port Colborne was then enlarged for 9-foot navigation and opened for navigation in 1850.

This canal between Thorold and Port Dalhousie remained in operation after the third canal was completed, but since 1915 has been used only for power purposes. In 1853 the navigable depth was increased to 10 feet by raising the banks and the walls of the locks, but it was not until 1881 that the canal was actually fed from Lake Erie at Port Colborne.The original cost of construction including the first enlargement or the total expenditure prior to Confederation, the 1st July, 1867, was $7,638,239

 

THE THIRD WELLAND CANAL

In 1871 a canal commission reporting on general conditions advised the further enlargement of the Welland Canal and it was decided to undertake extensive alterations. Locks were called for 270 feet long, 45 feet wide and having a 12-foot depth of water. This depth of water was later increased to 14 feet, but it was not until 1887 that this depth of water was available throughout the whole canal. Even before this enlargement was completed vessels were being built on the upper lakes too large to pass through the locks.

The Third Welland Canal left Lake Ontario at Port Dalhousie and climbed the Escarpment east of the Second or Old Canal to Allanburg. From Allanburg to Port Colborne it followed the route of the Second Canal. Its structures were the finest example of the stone masonry and its 26 lockshave now joined with those of the Second Canal as mute evidence of the stone-masons' skill.

Travelling through the Third Welland Canal

In 1901 the total tonnage passed through the Welland Canal was 620,209 tons. By 1914 this had increased to 3,860,969 tons, and in 1928, 7,439,617 tons of water-borne freight passed through the Welland Canal on its movement to and from the markets of the world. All of this freight was carried by vessels limited in length to 255 feet and to a breadth not exceeding 44 feet.

The growth in shipping on the Great Lakes has at all times maintained pace with the demand for water transportation, but this growth has been entirely out of proportion with the navigation facilities provided from Lake Erie to tidewater on the St. Lawrence by way of the Welland and St. Lawrence Canals.

The Third Canal at Lock 16, and ponds in series of the rise to the Niagara Escarpment

The tremendous growth of the eastern movement of grain and iron ore and the western movement of coal necessitated the construction of vessels of much larger dimensions than the limiting dimensions of the Welland and St. Lawrence Canals. Already vessels up to 633 feet in length with a beam of 70 feet and a load draught of over 20 feet are in service, but all of these larger vessels have been confined in their movements between the Head of the Lakes and the Harbours of Lake Erie, where transfer of cargo to rail or smaller canal sized vessels became necessary.

 

THE WELLAND SHIP CANAL

This situation called attention at the beginning of the Twentieth Century to the necessity of many further canal improvements being madeto accommodate the shipping that would use these artificial water channels. The construction of the Fourth Welland Canal as a Ship Canal capable of accommodating the largest of the Great Lakes freighters, as well as large ocean freight carriers, was therefore begun by the Dominion of Canada in 1913.

The route of the Welland Ship Canal departs very radically from that of the previous canals, particularly on the Lower Lake Ontario level of the peninsula. It leaves Lake Ontario at a point about four miles east of Port Dalhousie, the northern terminus of the previous canals, and follows, in practically a straight line, due south along the Valley of the Ten Mile Creek to the foot of the Niagara Escarpment at Thorold. This alignment is maintained in the ascent of the escarpment itself, although the route of the previous canals is followed from the top of the escarpment to Port Colborne in a generalway. All of the sharp bends of the previous canals are eliminated, and it might reasonably be said that the Welland Ship Canal follows a straight north and south course across the peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

As no harbour existed on Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Ten Mile Creek, now the northern terminus of the Welland Ship Canal, an artificial harbour, Port Weller, was one of the necessities of construction. By means of a standard double track railway, extending from Lake Ontario south for seven miles or more along the route of the canal, the surplus excavation of this northern division of the work was disposed of in the form of two embankments projected north from the shoreline into Lake Ontario. At their outer and inner ends these embankments are outlined by reinforced concrete cribs, thus forming a 400-foot wide entrance to the new harbour, one and one-half miles from the original shoreline, and several thousand feet of deep water dockage in the inner end of the harbour. Surplus rock excavation distributed along the exterior of these two embankments preserves them from the erosion of the lake storms.

At extreme low stages the difference in level between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie is 325 feet and in the Ship Canal this difference in level is overcome by seven locks, each having the same 46 foot lift. All these locks are of the same dimensions and provide a usable length of 820 feet, a usable width of 79 feet, with 30 feet of water over their sills.

While a minimum of 30 feet of water is provided at all permanent structures, only 20 feet is presently available at low water level in the Upper Lakes harbours and channels, and for the time being the Ship Canal reaches between lock structures are excavated to a minimum 25 feet only. When the future demands of shipping necessitate, this can be increased to 30 feet by the simple process of dredging the reaches for the additional 5-foot depth without interfering in any way with navigation. So, after a period of over one hundred years of canal construction across the Niagara Peninsula, it would appear that a waterway is now provided which is adequate not only to the demands of to-day, but of those that may be made upon it for many years to come.The first seven miles of the Welland Ship Canal south from Lake Ontario are banked by the slightly rising lower level of the peninsula, which is deservedly called the Garden of Canada because of its natural rolling beauty and intensively cultivated fruit lands. Imposed in this section of the Ship Canal are the first three locks with long straight reaches of canal prism of over 200 feet bottom width and 310 feet width at water level, providing ample accommodation for the movement and passage of up and downbound navigation. These three locks elevate navigation 140 feet above the Lake Ontario level and bring it to the foot of the Niagara Escarpment.

The climb up the face of the escarpment, by means of four locks of equal lifts, is obtained without any deviation from the direct route. Three of these locks are superimposed immediately one above the other, so that in a distanceof slightly over one-half mile, navigation is elevated another 139 feet. This arrangement, however, of three locks in flight necessitates the duplication of these locks to provide separate means of passage for up and downbound navigation, where, with but one flight of locks, a serious delay to the passage of navigation would occur.

With a short intervening stretch of canal prism, the last of the seven locks, which brings navigation to Lake Erie level, is reached in the Town of Thorold, but this intervening short reach provides water space for vessels to pass and eliminates, for the present at least, the necessity of a duplicate lock again at this point.

From the head of Lock 7 at Thorold across the remainder of the peninsula to Port Colborne the Ship Canal provides the same standardwidth of waterway as elsewhere, with 200 feet bottom width and a minimum 25-foot depth. Spanning this waterway at intervals are the swing, bascule and vertical lift bridges which accommodate the numerous railway and highway traffic arteries which cross the peninsula from east to west. The vertical lift bridges, operating on the principle of the counter-balanced elevator, provide for the movable span being lifted 120 feet clear of the waterway for the passage of navigation, and offer a much less restricted channel than is provided by the use of the swing-bridge so common to navigation waterways.

On Lake Erie, being a vast expanse of shoal water, the water level is subject to rapid variations caused by wind direction, and differences in level as great as 11 feet have been observed at Port Colborne—the result of achange in wind direction from the east to the west. Such a variation, transferred to the summit level of the canal, would introduce tremendous and expensive traffic delays and so tend to defeat the purpose for which the improved waterway is provided. Consequently at Port Colborne, immediately before the canal joins up with the lake, a guard lock is provided through which navigation is passed from the regulated summit level to the variable level prevailing on the lake. This lock is 1,380 feet long, has the same standard width and draught, but its lift is that determined from day to day by Lake Erie itself.

Midway across the peninsula the summit level of the canal crosses the Chippawa Creek (Welland River) a sluggish stream having its source in the western part of the peninsula and flowing in an easterly direction to discharge into the Niagara River at the head of the rapids above the Falls. The summer level of the river being some six feet below that of the summit level of thecanal necessitated the construction of an under-passage, by which its waters are carried entirely under the Ship Canal. The foundations of this structure, an inverted syphon culvert, stand at a depth of 86 feet below the level of the water in the canal, and six tubes, each 22 feet in diameter, form the water passage by which Chippawa Creek flows on to the Niagara River.

Construction and Equipment

Actual construction of the Welland Ship Canal was started in the fall of 1913, at which time the lock division of the new waterway from Lake Ontario to Thorold was placed under contract and vigorous construction activities on this portion of the work were continued in spite of the outbreak of the World War in 1914. In the spring of 1916, with the ever-increasingshortage of material arid man power for man power for the further continuance of this work, construction had to be suspended and remained so until 1919.

As a means of re-establishing in peace-time pursuits the many men returning from overseas service in the World War, construction on the canal was resumed in 1919 on a cost-plus basis by the original contractors, but as this failed to obtain the desired object the cost-plus basis of carrying on the work was abandoned. The remainder of the work was all placed under contract, the divisions of the work on the summit level being placed under construction at this time, in order to synchronize the completion of all sections.

The peak of activities was reached in 1927, when, withthe northern end of the work still under active construction, work was being carried on throughout the whole extent of the canal from lake to lake, and during this construction season a force of nearly four thousand workmen was engaged throughout the extent of the canal zone.

With the advance of the general construction contracts, it became possible to proceed with the manufacture and installation of the operating equipment of the structures. Then followed the fabrication and erection of the steel gates. Thirty gate leaves, each over 82 feet high by 48 feet long and 5 feet thick, each leaf weighing complete nearly 500 tons, were required for the lower gates of the seven locks between Lake Ontario and Thorold, where, as well, and including those for the gate yard, twenty-two upper gates, 353/2 feet high, 48 feet long and each weighing about 200 tons were also required. In addition, 12 gates of an intermediate size, 44 feet high, 48 feetlong, also of all steel construction, were provided for the gates of the guard lock at Port Colborne and the guard gate structure immediately south of Lock 7 in Thorold.

For the handling and replacement of these gates is provided a floating pontoon gate lifter, capable of lifting and placing in position any leaf up to one million pounds weight. As well, on the east side of the canal at the upper entrance of Lock 1, immediately above the Lake Ontario level, is provided a gate repair basin. This, in itself, is a dry dock which is filled and emptied by gravity. Here eight spare gate leaves are stored, and it provides as well a drydock for repairing damaged gate leaves and wintering the gate lifter.

For the operation of the gates and valves of the various lock structures, electrically operated machinery is provided and as electricity is the sourceof power used throughout the canal for all operations, a 15,000 K.V.A. electrical development has been built at the foot of the flight locks using the 186-foot head immediately available at this point between the upper pool level of Lock 7 and the lower pool level of Lock 4, where this power house is situated. Approximately 10,000 horse-power of electric energy is required for the lighting and the operation of the locks, weirs and bridges on the Welland Ship Canal.

In one marked respect the construction of the Welland Ship Canal differs vastly from the three previous canals. Realizing, during construction, that this enlarged waterway would require, in operation, a greater measure of protection against the erosive agents of nature, and one of the greatestsources of delay to the navigation of limited artificial waterways, that of cross winds, an extensive reforestation program has been carried on with construction. Vast numbers of trees, native to the district, have been developed from seed, and these are now fast maturing into trees, the roots of which will bind together the earth embankments of the prism reaches. The branches and leaves will form a wind-break by the aid of which navigation will pass during any mood of the winds.

So, while in construction, an ugly gash was made in the landscape of the Garden of Canada from Lake to Lake, this, with the assistance of mother nature, is now rapidly healing, and what might have been a gaunt commercial waterway is being transformed into a zone of natural scenic beauty.

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