Final Transit

Niagara’s Man Made Wonder - Welland Canal

On the way to Niagara Falls from Toronto is the [tag]Welland Canal[/tag]. It is a man made construction that connects [tag]Lake Ontario[/tag] and [tag]Lake Erie[/tag]. Lake Erie is about 100 meters above lake Ontario and guess what this canal does…. it lifts the ships up! awesome, isn’t it? Canadian Encyclopedia describes it as follows:

The Welland Canal is a navigational canal 43.5 km long, crossing the Niagara Peninsula of southwestern Ontario from Port Weller on Lake Ontario to Port Colborne on Lake Erie. It overcomes a height difference of 99.4 m between the 2 lakes and bypasses the turbulent Niagara River and [tag]Niagara Falls[/tag].

The [tag]ships[/tag] pass thru a series of ‘locks’ or gates that slowly raise their height. I was at lock 3, which has the St. Catharines Museum and plenty of space to watch the action:


View of QEW from Lock 3:


Queen Elizabeth Way. (Freeway that connect Buffalo, New York, USA and the Niagara Peninsula with Toronto and its western suburbs):


As the ship approaches, a bridge over a local road opens:


Gates open to let the ship enter:


Ship enters the lock:


Water is pumped into the lock to “lift” the ship up:


CSL Assiniboine. Its a beautiful ship. (notice the level):


Finally, the ship is elevated:

Children were screaming and cheering the rising ship while the crew members happily waved back at them. I have heard that sometimes crew members from foreign ships toss a few foreign currency coins at children, its worth the fun.
This large ship was going upstream, but we also saw two small sailboats going downstream.
Finally, if you are still clueless about how the whole thing works, see the little animation (source)

• Niagara Falls - Evening (10)
• Niagara Falls (13)
• Weekend at Algonquin (0)
• Toronto Islands - I (8)
• The sky is blue, so is the water (5)

¶ Tags: Canada, Photo, Travel

¤ Blogged by Priyank. | Trackback

5 Responses to “Niagara’s Man Made Wonder - Welland Canal”. Add Yours

1. #1

   Rick ‌ May 30, 2007 22:00

   unfair. I have grown up here but never visited this place.

2. #2

   Pepe M ‌ May 31, 2007 3:31

   sigh, wish i could visit canada someday!

3. #3

   Priyank ‌ May 31, 2007 19:34

   Rick
   I was in Mumbai for over 15 years, but I visited Gateway of India just a couple of times (maybe)

   Pepe
   You should, its nice!

4. #4

   Jasmine ‌ Jun 01, 2007 12:28

   Hi. very interesting pictures enough. Thisc anal was made n remade a number of times.

5. #5

   Ash ‌ Jun 01, 2007 20:20

   Wow it must be super to be watching this. is that canada ship or usa?

Please reply!