First Welland Canal reason for the error is not known. On July 4, 1818, Merritt organized a meeting in St. Catharines. The outcome was a petition sent to Upper Canada Legislature to provide for construction of a canal between the Twelve Mile Creek and Welland River. Unlike Merritt's original water-canal plan, the petition included plans for allowing boats to cross the Niagara Escarpment. In 1823, Hiram Tibbetts, an engineer, was employed to make a formal survey for the route. He suggested to dig a channel below the surface level of Welland River between present-day Port Robinson and Allanburg, and then follow the Twelve
Welland and was also used by the Wabash Railway. Later, it became the Cayuga Subdivision of the Canadian National Railway. Lastly, the Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Railway provided electric interurban service from Port Colborne, Ontario to Thorold, Ontario via Welland. Passenger service ended in November 1959, but the tracks remained in freight use until 1981 when a trestle over the Welland River became unsafe and the line was removed from service. The relocation of the Welland Canal in the early 1970s caused massive changes in the local railway network. The new route of the canal was previously crossed by five