The Welland Canal only refers to the one that is currently in service, there were three built before it. The First Welland Canal was completed in 1833 with 40 wooden locks at 110 feet long each. The Old Welland Canal was completed in 1853 with 28 stone locks at 150 feet long each. The New Welland Canal was completed in 1887 with 23 stone locks at 270 feet long each. The Welland Canal now in use was completed in 1932 with 8 concrete locks at 859 feet long each.
The canal is just one of many that form a whole system of locks enabling ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean over 500 kilometres to Minnesota. The other locks are located at Montreal, Cornwall, Windsor, Sarnia, and Sault Ste. Marie.
Why is everything on the Welland Canal measured in feet and miles? Canada didn’t start using the metric system until 1970, and the most recent iteration of the canal was completed nearly four decades before that. The St. Catharines Museum displays bits of the city’s history, such as hats and industrial products, it even has a car on display that was made at a local factory about a century ago.
However, most people visit the museum because it’s also home to the Welland Canal Centre. Visitors can check the schedule for Lock Number 3 online to see when ships are passing through, then stand on a platform to watch the locks open. It was raining when I visited, but it was free, so I wasn’t going to complain.
Federal Hunter passing through Lock Number 3. 
Model of Lock Number 3
You can go on Wikipedia and learn how a modern lock works, so I’m not going to embarrass myself by trying to explain something I don’t completely understand. What I do know is that the lock holds 92 million litres of water and it takes about a half-hour for a ship to lock through, which might explain why I felt so cold that day.
