Discover Ontario's history as told through its plaques
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The First Welland Canal 1824-1833
Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted August, 2004
Photo by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted October, 2010
Photo from Google Street View ©2010 Google - Posted October, 2010
Photo from Google Street View ©2010 Google - Posted November, 2013
Plaque Location
The Region of Niagara
The City of St. Catharines
In a park near a totem pole not far from
the foot of the stairs south off Gale Crescent
east of Geneva Street just north of Highway 406
Coordinates: N 43 09.677 W 79 14.124 |
Plaque Text
Lock number 6 of the original Welland Canal lies in the adjacent watercourse about 213 metres south-west of here. This first or "wooden" canal, constructed 1824-33 by the Welland Canal Company, ran from Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario to Port Colborne on Lake Erie. William Hamilton Merritt was its chief promoter. With the opening of the canal as far as Port Robinson in 1829, lake boats reached Lake Erie via the Welland and Niagara Rivers. When completed in 1833, the 45 km canal enabled vessels to pass directly from lake to lake through 40 small timbered locks. In 1841 the Province of Canada took full control of the canal from its private owners.
Related Ontario plaques
William Hamilton Merritt 1793-1862
The Old Welland Canal
More
Information
More
Canals
Here are the visitors' comments for this page.
> Posted June 24, 2012
Looking for any information about my grandfather John Alonzo Reynolds, died 1928 in St. Catharines, Ontario. He was an engineer (Graduated Engineering School in Halifax, Nova Scotia) on the Welland Canal (the fourth one). He took appendicitis and died up there. We have no information about his employment there. Can anyone find any information for us.
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