Lockages along the Trent-Severn Waterway free for Canada Day
Global News
If you're hoping to hit the water this season, Canada Day could be the perfect time.
If you’re hoping to hit the water this season, Canada Day could be the perfect time. Karen Feeley, acting external relations manager for Ontario Waterways, said lockages along the Trent-Severn Waterway are free on July 1.
To celebrate, we set out to (and over) the iconic Peterborough Lift Lock.
“The light has turned green now, so we are going to go into the tub on the right-hand side, the gate is down,” Feeley said as we approached Lock 21. “It is all done on a gravity system with one tub at the top and basically acts as an elevator.”
The almost 20-metre elevator is the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world.
“The lift lock was built back in 1900; it was finished in 1904,” Feeley said.
“It is also built without any reinforcing steel and without the help of any mechanized construction equipment.”
Without it, Feeley said you would need four consecutive lock stations to span the difference. Once inside the lock tub, it’s about a 90-second transfer to the top.
The Trent-Severn Waterway, and the Peterborough Lift Lock, are both national historic sites and attract local and international tourists.