Welland Canal Port Maitland. With the opening of the extension, the canal stretched between the two lakes, with 40 wooden locks. The minimum lock size was , with a minimum canal depth of . Deterioration of the wood used in the 40 locks and the increasing size of ships led to demand for the Second Welland Canal, which used cut stone locks, within just a few years. In 1839 the government of Upper Canada approved the purchase of shares in the private canal company in response to the company's continuing financial problems in the face of the continental financial panic of 1837.
Welland Canal However, the sandy soil in this part of Ontario made a tunnel infeasible, and a deep open-cut canal was dug instead. A southern extension from Port Robinson opened in 1833, with the founding of Port Colborne. This extension followed the Welland River south to Welland (known then as the settlement of Aqueduct, for the wooden aqueduct that carried the canal over the Welland River at that point), 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 Provincial Park in