The Welland Canal Is Hiding Something Nobody Talks About

Every year, ships longer than two football fields climb a cliff near Niagara Falls. But the most important thing that ever came through the Welland Canal had no captain, no cargo and no papers. It swam. For 12,000 years, Niagara Falls was a wall that cut the upper Great Lakes off from the Atlantic. Then a mill owner with a dry creek dug a way around it. In this documentary, we climb all eight locks of the Welland Canal, from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, and uncover the story most people standing at the railings never hear: the 137 workers who died building it, three plots to blow it up (one tied to a man who later helped bring Hitler to power), the day a lock wall collapsed and stranded 135 ships, the 1,000-foot freighters that can never leave the upper lakes, and the jawless invader that slipped past the falls and nearly wiped out the Great Lakes' lake trout. 43 kilometres. 8 locks. 99.5 metres of climb. And a door that, once opened, could never be closed again. If you enjoy deep dives into the hidden history behind places you think you know, subscribe and turn on notifications.