Welland Canal Locks

Watch ocean-going freighters navigate the ship canal through the heart of town

The Welland Canal passes directly through the city, and Lock 1 near downtown is the most accessible viewing point. The locks are massive — each chamber is about 233 metres long and 24 metres wide — and watching a fully loaded bulk carrier or container ship pass through at street level is unexpectedly dramatic. The ship seems impossibly large for the channel, moving silently and slowly while the water level adjusts around it.

There is a viewing platform at the lock, and ships transit at all hours from April to December (the canal closes in winter). You can check vessel tracking online to time your visit to a ship passage. The Welland Canal Bridge 13 is the vertical lift bridge in downtown that rises to let ships through — it is the most photographed single point on the canal within Welland.

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The Welland Canal was first built in 1829 to bypass Niagara Falls — the one stretch of the Great Lakes system where ships couldn't pass. Today's version, the fourth, handles ships up to 225 metres long and 23 metres wide, raising and lowering them 42 metres over its eight locks to bridge the elevation difference between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. About 40 million tonnes of cargo pass through each year.

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