Marking the opening of an engineering marvel
KATHLEEN POWELL AND ADRIAN PETRY
On Sunday, we mark the 85th anniversary of the official opening of the Welland Ship Canal, also known as the fourth and currently operating Welland Canal.
While the fourth canal had already been in operation for two years, the official opening on Aug. 6, 1932, of this monumental work of engineering was of such importance that a great fanfare was arranged.
Dignitaries from Canada and the British Empire, including the GovernorGeneralandbothCanadian and United Kingdom prime ministers, were in attendance.
In addition, the event was broadcast on radio across Canada and the United States and recorded on film for posterity.
The St. Catharines Standard ran a special edition of the newspaper on Aug. 5, 1932, to commemorate this significant event.
While today, people travelling across Niagara sometimes see only traffic delays and detours, in 1932 the Welland Ship Canal represented a solution to growth in ship and cargo sizes and also fostered a greater sense of nationhood and connectedness to a larger economic system of international trade.
The focus on empire is obvious in the design of the front page of this special section, as seen in the image that accompanies this article.
The building of the Welland Ship Canal was one of the largest and most expensive in Canadian government history. With a final cost then of $132 million, throughout the 18 years it took to build, the construction project was beset by the challenges of nature, the outbreak of the First World War, the Great Depression, labour shortage and strife, inadequate machinery and shortage of funds.
It also required a significant rethink at how large projects such as this one would be completed moving forward.
Lessons learned about workplace safety and project management would be used in other national projects moving forward.
As noted by eminent historians Roberta Styran and Robert Taylor: “It’s construction not only reflected changes in the nature of the country’s workforce but also revealed society’s developing attitudes to common labour and to employment conditions in general. Even early in its evolution, the waterway’s construction presented Canada with a version of today’s multicultural society.”
Sadly, the human toll that came with the building of this massive waterway was very high. Accidents were frequent and resulted in the death of 137 men in constructionrelated accidents. The story of these fallen workers has been featured in the pages of this newspaper over the past two years and will continue into 2018.
To recognize these fallen workers, a memorial is being built adjacent to Lock 3 of the canal, on the property next to the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre. This memorial is expected to be unveiled in the fall. For more information about the Fallen Workers Memorial or to make a donation to the public fundraising campaign visit www. stcatharines.ca/en/governin/FallenWorkers-Memorial.asp.
While the Welland Ship Canal was not the first canal to bisect the region and circumvent the great obstacle to shipping — the Niagara Escarpment and Niagara Falls — it was a significant step forward in shipping history in Canada.
As noted in a Maclean’s magazine article published on July 1, 1930, the canal “concludes a truly remarkable chapter in engineering history by completing a master link in the chain of lakes, rivers and canals which constitute the world’s greatest system of inland waterways.”