We left our walk along Niagara Falls after lunch with the intent of returning to our campsite. But because we had travelled 0ver 360 miles along the St Lawrence Seaway, we wanted to stop and see one of the locks. What luck! A google search identified Lock 3 along the Welland Canal as being on our route. Luckily, Lock 3 was also home to St. Catharine’s Marine Museum, and oddly, the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River were major North American trade arteries from the time the USA and Canada first became nations. But the ability to maximize trade using water transportation was severely hampered by the lack of any connection between Lakes Erie and Ontario, as well as, between Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. The Welland Canal and a series of locks were constructed first in 1829 to connect the two lakes. The canal and locks were improved two more times before the current version with 8 locks was completed in 1932. While this was a vast improvement, there still was no means for cargo ships called “lakers” to pass from Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. Lakers from the Great Lakes had to be off loaded at Montreal and reloaded into ships on the river side. Eventually seven locks were constructed to connect Lake Ontario to the St. Lawrence River in 1959, and this became the St. Lawrence Seaway. Today, the Seaway consists of 13 Canadian and 2 USA locks, which allows lakers to travel up to 2,340 miles from Duluth, MN to the North Atlantic.
The Welland Canal begins at Port Colborne on Lake Erie and runs downstream 27.6 miles to Port Waller on Lake Ontario. The canal and locks are required because of the Niagara Escarpment, a 326 feet elevation drop between Lakes Erie and Ontario. Lock 3 was at the northern end of Welland Canal and lowers or raises each laker by 43 feet. The lock is sized to handle a laker with these maximum characteristics: 740 feet length, 75 feet beam, and 26.5 feet draft. The lock holds 24 million gallons of water (equal to 36 olympic-sized swimming pools) and only takes 11 minutes to fill or empty by gravity alone. Each laker weighs up to 39,000 tons and can carry 70,000 tons or cargo. The lock handles about 3,000 lakers annually (about 12 per day) moving approximately 210 million tons of commodities per year. The economics of the Seaway can be illustrated in this way: 1 laker is equivalent to 963 tractor-trailer trucks or seven 100-car trains.
The Seaway supports the industrial and agricultural heartlands of the USA and Canada, where the primary commodities produced are iron ore, grain, and coal. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River region generates $45 billion in economic activity and employs 238,000. This activity has a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of just over $6 trillion per year, and is equal to the third largest national GDP in the world behind the USA and China.
When we arrived, the “BAIE COMEAU” laker had been stuck in Lock 3 for three hours because of an electrical outage. Power is still required to operate valves and a system called vacuum mooring. Lakers used to be moored (secured) in the lock by crew members hand tying mooring lines. In 2014, three CAVOTEC “Moor Masters” were installed at Lock 3 to replace the manual task. Each Moor Master has two vacuum pads which hold the laker steady as it raises or lowers. This improvement made mooring much faster and safer. It now takes less than 8 hours to navigate the Welland Canal as compared to 11 hours in the past.
Luckily, power to the lock was restored while we were still touring the Marine Museum. MFI flagged me down, and we were fortunate to see the entire process of leaving the lock in the downstream direction. The model of the lock provided inside the museum is an excellent and true representation of Lock 3 and its surroundings.
Museum Model of Lock 3, Laker Headed Upstream 
“BAIE COMMEAU” Facing Downstream 
Lock About Half Empty 
Downstream Turbulence From Lock Emptying 
Gates About To Open 
Headed North For Lock 2
Videos were added below because action is much more interesting than the stills.
Being an architect and engineer, MFI and I are just geeky enough to have really enjoyed our lock experience. BTW, we did go through the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame since it was there. Not being a fan, the only thing I walked away with was the knowledge that lacrosse was originally created by Canadian indigenous tribes perhaps a 1000 years ago. We were pleased to see First Nation peoples getting credit where credit was due.
