A while back I noticed a little side road next to the big bridge across 12 Mile Creek on Glendale. After a quick peak on Google Maps I noticed there was an old road running parallel to the bridge, and I figured it must have been the original bridge. This was something I had to investigate.
The bridge itself wasn’t very interesting, it was rather narrow allowing only pedestrians and cyclists to cross but based on it’s support structure it was once much wider. The road further up was more interesting as you could see that it was once paved but was now cracked all over and had much vegetation growing from it.
After stopping on my way home from work to check out the old Knifeworks Factory I found myself wandering further down the trail it resides on only to discover old canal locks which I now know to be part of the 2nd Canal system. This is another case of having driven by something every day for years and having no idea that it was there. This section is found just to the east of the 406 as it enters St. Catharines and winds west.
I walked for about half an hour down the trail, there was one lock just past the Knifeworks Factory and another one quite a hike past that. You can keep going until it eventually crosses the Via Rail line, in that distance you find a total of 7 locks. After which you will immediately find one more and then the canal will start to vanish and reappear again as parts have been buried. The majority of it from that point on is underground but you will find certain parts such as Mountain Locks Park next to The Keg (formerly the Rubber Factory), beyond that you’ll find a few scattered remains in backyards but almost everything has been covered over.
People who grew up in the Niagara Region take the Welland Canal for granted. Some even see it as an eye-sore. Personally, I find it to be a cache of forgotten treasures waiting to be rediscovered. It amazes me how I can drive by a spot every day for a year and not notice an ancient treasure hiding in the trees as I pass it by, all it takes is the one day where you catch something out of the corner of your eye and do a double take. And that is exactly how I discovered this gem.
As I passed what I had always thought was just a river I noticed that a couple hundred meters from the bridge there was an old stone wall crumbling into the river. So I pulled over and found a path way that took me down to the water. From there I was able to see that this was not just a river, but an abandoned section of the canal.
After taking a few pictures from water level I managed to find a path up through the bush which took me to the top of the wall. From there I was able to follow a path down to the other end of the lock, which had collapsed due to errosion. Despite the unbelievable craftsmanship of the lock walls they could not hold up to the relentless force of water, in less than 100 years the walls were being consumed by nature.
From this point the canal openned up into a larger body of water that is known as the Welland Canal Parklands. When this section of the canal was in use the land looked much different, where as now it has been flooded by the lake. Off in the distance to the north-west I could see another lock which appeared to be between what is now an island and another thin strip of land. This is Lock 11 of the third Welland Canal, and beside it is an old weir. Unfortunately my camera failed to capture this beautiful view.
After climbing my way back out to the main road I peered over the other side of the bridge and was happy to see that much more of the canal was still intact, however I decided to save that section for another day. After returning home and doing some research to determine the history of what I had discovered, I found that not only were there several more sections of the old canals to explore but also a few old tunnels. Plans have already been made to explore them this summer.
A while back I noticed a little side road next to the big bridge across 12 Mile Creek on Glendale. After a quick peak on Google Maps I noticed there was an old road running parallel to the bridge, and I figured it must have been the original bridge. This was something I had to investigate. 
