THE THIRD CANAL

It had become evident, then, that the larger the vessel the cheaper could she carry freight, and as soon as it became evident that three-fourths of the vessels on the upper lakes could not pass the Welland canal, it at the same time became equally clear that the enlargement of that canal was necessary, or that it must constantly lose a greater proportion of the trade and commerce of the Great Lakes, which Canada very naturally disliked to see go to the Erie canal, desiring it to go down to and through the St. Lawrence canals. The only way, therefore, for Canada to compete for the lumber, iron, copper and grain trade of the upper lakes, was to enlarge the canal. During the preceding ten years statistics appeared to prove that it was practically at a stand still from 1860 to 1869 inclusive. In 1860 its commerce amounted to 2,182,593 tons, or in other words this was the tonnage of the vessels passing through; while in 1869 this tonnage was 2,462,201, an increase of only 118,680 tons, and in 1867 it had been only 1,927,198.

Typical "CANALLER" saiiling over the aqueduct at Welland.

There were then but four great through routes from the West and North to the seaboard -- First, the several railroad lines; second, the Great Lakes and the Erie canal; third, the Great Lakes, the Welland and the Oswego canal, and fourth, the Great Lakes, the Welland and the St. Lawrence canals. To the prosperity of the latter two routes the Welland canal was essential, and both Oswego and Kingston would immediately benefit the moment the Welland should be enlarged. An elaborate compilation of statistics was made to show that the natural waterway, the St. Lawrence, must eventually compete successfully with the artificial waterway, the Erie canal, for the commerce of the upper lakes.

It had been twenty two years after Upper and Lower Canada had completed the nine foot navigation between Lake Erie and Montreal, the Dominion Government took up the question of Inland Navigation, and the Commission of l870 recommended a uniform scale of navigation for the St. Lawrence route and the Welland Canal with Locks 270 feet long, 45 feet wide and 12 feet of water on the sills. This depth of water was later increased to 14 feet.

The story of a new canal, the third, began when a commission recommended a uniform series of locks for the St. Lawrence and Welland Canals. The locks, built of cut stone, throughout the system were to 270 feet long, 45 feet wide and 12 feet deep, later increased to 14 feet. The Third Canal was built to these specifications and opened for traffic in 1887.

The new channel was essentially a widened and deepened version of the Second Welland Canal. The most critical change occurred between Thorold and Port Dalhousie, where a diagonal cut was excavated across the farmland past Homer.This was a shorter and required fewer locks because of the greater fall at each lock. The canal was carried over the Chippawa Creek at Welland, by a cut stone aqueduct

compiled by department of geography, Brock University

The Third Welland Canal between Port Dalhousie and Thorold was constructed along a newer, shortewr route in a man-made channel with fewer locks.

 

Third Welland Canal in 1920 near Port Dalhousie. It might be looking North showing Locks 2,3 and 4.

Harbour scene at Port in 1910

Up to that time the Grand river had been relied upon as the feeder. This river rises in the southern part of Grey county, within thirty miles of Georgian Bay, and after a circuitous course of 130 miles through Wellington, Waterloo, Wentworth, Perth, Oxford, Brant and Haldimand counties, draining an area of 2,600 square miles, flows into Lake Erie. It was estimated that if one-half of the water that fell within the limits of its watershed could be stored and utilized as required it would furnish 275,000 cubic feet of water per minute, or about nine times as much as would be required by the enlarged canal; but this could not be accomplished, and only a mere fractional part of this supply could be used. In fact, ever since 1833 the Grand river had afforded only a precarious supply of water, and it had been for years foreseen that as the country drained by the Grand river became cleared of its forests and settled it could not be depended on as a feeder, and hence the plans for the enlargement of the canal also contemplated the making of Lake Erie the summit and feeder of the canal.

All statistics pointed to the fact that. in the lakes, the main classes of cargo was ore, coal and grain. The average navigable season lasts from between the middle of April to the middle of December; it varied from 260 days on the southerly lakes to 230 days on the northerly waters of Lake Superior, and on the St. Lawrence Canals. The Third Welland Canal, between Lake Erie and Ontario, had an average season of 243 days.

The ore traffic primarily moved from Duluth to ports on Lake Michigan and Erie. The bulk of the coal traffic moved from Lake Erie to Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. A fair amount of coal from the south shore of Lake Erie also went to Buffalo. The size of the vessels plying these routes contiually increased with the capacity of 15,00 t0 16,000 tons. Their dimensions increased to 637 ft with a 64 ft beam. In the case of transport grain cargoes it was differed from ore and coal in that most of it was bound for overseas markets. With the largest amount going to Montreal.

The large vessels, referred to above, could not navigate lower than Lake Erie, it has to be transferred to smaller vesses primarily at Buffalo and Port Colborne. Grain was also diverted at Buffalo through the Erie Canal to New York.

The Third Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Canals, unlike the Erie Canal, were not restricted by overhead structures which meant that shipments could be made from Lake Superior through to the ocean port of Montral without breaking bulk. The ships used for this were called CANALLERS which were about 261 ft in lenght, 43 ft beam and a 20ft draught carrying about 2,800 long tons.

In 1871 the tons of freight that passed through this canal was 3,002,925, the tolls on which amounted to $286,228. The number of Canadian vessels was 4,270 and their tonnage amounted to 625,788; and the number of United States vessels was 3,459, having a tonnage of 928,330.

Third Canal Lock 16 on the rise to the Niagara Escarpment

Canallers in the Third Welland Canal

The rivalry between the Welland Canal and the canals through the State of New York for the carrying trade to the seaboard begins at the foot of Lake Erie. If, therefore, vessels of a very large carrying capacity could pass downward through the Welland canal and proceed thence to the side of ocean bound ships, a great object would be accomplished, and a route established which might reasonably be expected to compete with the Erie canal, and with the railroads passing through New York State. In 1845 all the vessels engaged in the grain trade on the upper lakes could pass through this canal, but in 1855 there were at least twenty propellers that could not use the canal on account of their size. In 1872 there were at least sixty propellers that could not pass through the Welland canal, and since that time the number has steadily and very largely increased, In 1871 the average load carried through the canal in United States vessels was 392 tons, while that carried down by Canadian vessels was 424 tons. And it was then evident that the requirements of trade rendered it imperative that the cost of transportation of freight should be reduced to the lowest possible rates. This reduction in the cost of transporting freight has since then been constantly in progress, and now (1897) the rates of freight on the Great Lakes are lower than ever before.

This reduction has been largely secured by the greatly increased carrying capacity of single vessels on the lakes, for while at one time 500 tons was considered a large cargo, it is now becoming common for vessels to carry nearly and sometimes upward of 5,000 tons, a number of cargoes of grain carried during the summer of 1897 exceeding 6,000 tons. It was the foreseen necessi-sity of larger boats, and the desire to pass them through the Welland canal, that led to the enlargement and improvement of that waterway in 1873.

Third Canal from top of escarpment with locks and ponds in series

At that time the Lake Erie entrance to the canal at Port Colborne was formed by means of piers extending into the lake.

At this same time the Lake Ontario harbor to the Welland canal was situated at the natural outlet at Twelve Mile creek, near the village of Port Dalhousie. Its entrance was formed by means of two parallel piers running in a north and south direction nearly 2,100 feet into the lake, the space between the piers being equal to about nine and a half acres, and the usual depth at original low water being from 11 ½ to 12 feet. Between the inner end of the entrance piers and the first lock in the Welland canal, the basin had an area of seven acres, which it was thought easy to increase to seventeen acres at any time, and the work connected with deepening the entrance channel to 14 feet and the basin to 13 ½ feet at the inner end of the piers, and to 13 feet at the lock over an area of about ten acres, was then under contract.

It was in 1872-73 that these two harbors, at Port Dalhousie and at Port Colborne, were enlarged and deepened, and a contract was entered into for enlarging the entire canal. Elaborate surveys were made and the estimates reduced to the nearest approximation. The enlargement of the canal also required the enlarging of the feeder from Grand river by two feet from the junction to Port Maitland branch at Broad creek, and thence upward to Dunnville, where an additional depth of eighteen inches was obtained, thus increasing the supply of water to the canal.

But the Grand river has sometimes threatened to fail, or at least partially fail, as a source of supply. In the early part of June, 1871, the water in the feeder canal between Dunnville and the Welland junction declined below its original height, and Grand river, whence the supply is obtained, fell so low as seriously to lessen the depth at the summit level; and while navigation was not interrupted yet it was found necessary to shut off the water from the mills above Al-lanburg. The canal commissioners therefore recommended that the rock walls, waste weirs and banks from Allanburgh to Port Dalhousie be raised in a permanent manner, so as to admit of vessels drawing 12 feet of water, and also that the canal locks be enlarged to 270 feet in length, and to a proportionate width.

But a more comprehensive plan of improvement than merely to increase the depth of the canal was determined on, and in 1873 the work was carried on, costing, from Port Colborne to Thorold, $4,060,000, and from Thorold to Port Dalhousie, $5,180,000, or in all $9,240,000. The scheme adopted for the width of this canal was that it should be 100 feet wide at the bottom and slope up on each side one foot in two. The locks were enlarged to 270 feet in length, and between the quoins the width was made 45 feet, with a depth of 13 feet.
From Thorold, at the head of the old system of locks, the channel was made to diverge so as to make a circuit past St. Catharines, emerging at Port Dalhousie and thus to give two outlets into Lake Ontario.

KEYWEST in Third Canal near St. Catharines

The Welland canal has two entrances from Lake Ontario, at Port Dalhousie, one for the old, the other for the new canal. From Port Dalhousie to Allanburgh, 11 ¾ miles, there are two distinct lines of canal in operation, the old line and the enlarged or new line. From Allanburgh to Port Colborne, a distance of 15 miles, there is only one channel, the old canal having been enlarged.

In 1883 the canal was opened to vessels drawing twelve feet of water, and in May, 1887, to vessels drawing fourteen feet of water.
During the year 1873 there passed up and down this canal 6,205 vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 1,397,388, and the tonnage collected amounted to $277,144. The number of passengers for the year was 7,620.

During the year 1891 the number of vessels passing through this canal, together with their nationality and classification, were as follows:
Canadian -- Steam, 81, with an aggregate tonnage of 29,290; sailing, 113, with an aggregate tonnage of 23,680; United States -- steam, 80, with an aggregate tonnage of 46,537; sailing, 97, with an aggregate tonnage of 31,918.

 

The propeller ST MAGNUS in Lock 19

Third Welland Canal at Welland

Excavating Third Welland Canal near Allanburg

Wooden steam freighter at Port Dalhousie harbour 1900

Waiting to enter Lock 1

Tugs Challenger and Alice with Dredge Delver at Port Dalhousie 1900

The Shirley G. Taylor in Lock One, headed for Lake Ontario. 1956 SHIRLEY G. TAYLOR was idle at Toronto from 1959 to 1962. The vessel was towed to Port Dalhousie and finally scrapped by A. Newman and Company in 1964