Welland Welland Welland (2016 population 52,293) is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. The city is in the centre of Niagara. Within a half-hour, residents can travel to Niagara Falls, Niagara-On-The-Lake, St. Catharines and Port Colborne. It has been traditionally known as the place "where rails and water meet", referring to the railways from Buffalo to Toronto and Southwestern Ontario, and the waterways of Welland Canal and Welland River, which played a great role in the city's development. The city has developed on both sides of the Welland River and Welland Canal, which connect Lake
First Welland Canal 1818, when the flow was especially low, Merritt pursued the idea of bringing water to his mills from the Welland River. On a bigger scale, the Erie Canal, dug from the Hudson River through northern New York, was about to reach Lake Erie. The impending completion meant the cargo from upper Great Lakes was about to head down the canal and Hudson River to New York City, bypassing its previous destination, Montreal. At the time, a considerable rivalry existed between Montreal and New York for cargo headed to Europe via ocean-going vessels. All of these factors contributed to the construction