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 of the Welland Canal. In 1818, William Hamilton Merritt borrowed an instrument called a water level from Samuel Beckett, a mill owner in St. Johns. Along with George Keefer, John DeCew, and a couple of other neighbours he set out to survey a potential route for a water canal. From the headwaters of the Twelve Mile Creek near present-day Allanburg, they planned a line three kilometers south to meet with the Welland River. A ridge was encountered along the way, and using the instrument, the surveyors calculated it to be 10 meters high. It was actually double that height; the