Building the Canal
The Construction of the Fourth Welland Canal began as a reconstruction and enlargement project of the existing Welland Canal at the time. The beginning of the 20th century saw an economic boom in Canada, with increasing numbers of ships being used for transporting goods within Canada and between Canada and the United States. Many canals were finished or under construction worldwide to facilitate trade, such as the Panama Canal, which finished construction in 1913. To benefit from Canada's economic success, the St. Catharines and Thorold boards of trade petitioned the Minister of Railways and Canals for the enlargement of the Welland Canal in 1910. Construction of the Fourth Welland Canal would begin three years later in 1913.
John Weller Laing was appointed as the engineer in charge of the construction of the ship canal in January 1912 and remained in charge during the construction of the canal from 1913 to March 1917. during this period of construction, the First World War broke out in 1914. While construction costs went up and the number of available labourers went down, the government continued the construction of the canal until March 1917, when it was halted due to shortages of money, materials, and labourers due to the war. Under Weller, construction was well documented with Weller having a large personal collection of photographs of the construction which were donated to the St.Catharines Museum and Welland Canal Centre in 2006.
After the war, construction on the Welland Canal resumed. With thousands of veterans coming home from war in need of jobs, public works projects such as the Welland Canal were sources of employment. Construction resumed in 1919 with Alex Grant appointed the engineer in charge. Grant would be in charge of the Welland Canals construction until after its completion in 1932 and his subsequent retirement in 1934.
The engineering of the canal was a lengthy process. While the existing route was used and enlarged, the decisions of dimensions took months of debate, and the number of Locks had to be decided upon, as they were necessary for safe travel due to the differences in elevation within the canal. To start construction, the entrances of the existing canal, as well as entrances to connected offshoot waterways needed to be dammed and the water drained. Earthen embankment walls were dug and a railway was built to transport materials during construction. Concrete plants and logging mills were built along the canal as construction went on. By the halting of construction in 1917, several bridges across the canal were under construction, some concrete embankments were finished and water-tight and construction of the locks had begun up to Lock 4. No Locks were finished by that time, and Weller wrote to Chief Engineer William Bowden urging to be allowed to complete Lock 1, to prevent complications and structural issues when construction resumed but was denied due to the cost. Weller had been correct to worry, as the unfinished lock had to be repaired before it could be finished by Grant. When Weller was appointed in 1912, the estimated cost of the canal's construction was $43 Million. By the time of its completion in 1932, that total cost had become $132 million.
The Welland Ship Canal was opened for government use in 1930 and was formally opened for commercial use in 1932. The first ship to pass through the canal at its formal opening was the SS Lemoyne. Lemoyne was the largest ship that had passed through the canal to enter Lake Ontario. The banks of the canal were crowded with people to celebrate the completion of the canal, and the arrival of behemoth ships that would bring economic prosperity to cities surrounding the Lakes.