Welland Canal Welland Canal The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Ontario, Canada, connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It forms a key section of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Traversing the Niagara Peninsula from Port Weller to Port Colborne, it enables ships to ascend and descend the Niagara Escarpment and bypass Niagara Falls. The canal carries about 3,000 ships which carry about 40,000,000 tons of cargo a year. It was a major factor in the growth of the city of Toronto, Ontario. The original canal and its successors allowed goods from Great Lakes ports such as Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago, as
Welland Canal, Bridge 15 15 was built ca. 1910 as a replacement for a wooden bridge formerly at the same location. During this time, the Third Welland Canal was still in use, however the need for expansion of the canal had been recognized. Accordingly, any new bridges were being constructed to standards which were expected to apply to the Fourth Welland Canal, which would not be completed until 1932. As will be discussed later in this article, these standards were not set high enough and this fact would make the swing bridge a serious hazard to navigation decades down the road. During the early