Photo: Boris Gjenero.
The Welland Canal is a strategic link between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. To accommodate as much traffic as possible an mitigate the delays of having to go through three consecutive locks, the lock system was divided in two so that ships can be accommodated for both directions. The above photo depicts the three locks necessary to climb the Niagara escarpment (locks 4, 5 and 6), which represents a lift of about 100 feet. A lock has the capacity to accommodate about 32 vessels per day which means that it takes 45 minutes to transit through a lock.