The Harbour Lock of the First Welland Canal 1828-1847

The Harbour Lock of the First Welland Canal 1828-1847. . The comings and goings of schooners and steamboats, captains and crews of sailors, towboys and their teams of horses - all these were common scenes here at the site of the harbour lock, the first Welland canal's northern terminus from 1828 to 1847. This timber lock and the harbour alongside it brought about the establishment of Port Dalhousie and were key to its early growth. , In the early 1820s a group of Niagara-area businessmen promoted the idea of a canal to link Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. In 1824 the Welland Canal Company was incorporated to undertake the canal's construction. In 1825 plans for the canal route followed the natural channel of Twelve Mile Creek from St. Catharines to Lake Ontario, with a timber lock at the mouth of the creek to be the canal's northern entry, and the natural basin of the pond there the location for a harbour. The site chosen for the lock was a cut across the beach at the food of the western headland. , The harbour lock was designed as a guard lock between the lake and harbour, 32' wide and 130' long, with a lift of 5'. Clearing and excavation began in early 1826. Over 35,000 feet of square timber and 1300 lbs. of iron were required for the lock's completion later that year. A feature of the lock was a swing bridge with a sweep of 32' that could be "drawn either way by one man with ease." Also completed in 1826 was the towpath, an earthen path raised through the creek to allow horses to tow vessels to the next lock. , Protective piers extending into the lake to form the lock entrance were completed in 1828; a lighthouse was constructed at the piers by 1835. , The harbour was also completed in 1828, with a depth of 12' and covering 300 acres; it was created by constructing an embankment across the beach between the two headlands, together with excavation and dredging, raising the water level in the basin sufficiently deep for lake vessels. , The harbour lock (and the two locks south of it) had larger dimensions than the other first Welland canal locks, so that steamboats could travel inland from Lake Ontario to the village of St. Catharines. , For the labourers who built the lock and harbour, the work was difficult and dangerous. Described as "a motley assemblage of good and bad from almost every part of the civilized world," they laboured with picks and shovels under brutal conditions in all kinds of weather. Accidents and illness were common, but wages were good because of a scarcity of labour: $12 a month for common shovellers, and $15-18 for teamsters. They were housed in shanties built on the bank above the beach. , The first vessel through the harbour lock was the schooner "Welland Canal," sailing from St. Catharines on May 10, 1828 with over 600 barrels of flour bound for Prescott for forwarding to Montreal. The schooner's passage through the lock was "greeted by a large concourse of spectators with long continued cheers...." , The first vessels to travel through the entire route of the Welland Canal began their passage at the harbour lock on November 27, 1829. Two schooners, the "Ann and Jane" of York, Upper Canada and the "R.H. Boughton" of Youngstown, New York, "decorated with flags and pendants" passed alongside the village "amid the spontaneous and hearty cheers" of onlookers. , Port Dalhousie grew and developed as the canal's northern terminus. An 1830 government report noted: "Already has the anticipated commerce of the canal begun to attract capital to Port Dalhousie. They are building houses and stores, and erecting granaries, and one merchant has established a wholesale store, with a heavy stock of British goods." By 1837 the village had a post office, sawmill, stores, taverns, and a shipyard. , In 1842 work began on a new canal of larger stone locks to replace the old timber locks, with Port Dalhousie remaining the canal's northern terminus. In 1848 a new and relocated Lock One and harbour were completed and brought into use. The old wooden lock that had been the making of Port Dalhousie was filled in and abandoned.