Old Guard Gate and Lost Bridges #7 and #9 on Welland Canal

Guard Gate and Bridge #9: (Satellite)

Bridge #7: (Satellite)

Michel Gosselin posted three photos with the comment: "The old guard gate above lock 7 in Thorold on September 15, 2024."

1

2

3

Derrick Thornbury commented on Photo 1
Here's a photo of it I took in May 2005 from the paper mill...

Michel Gosselin commented on the above post
It was used to regulate water levels and could be closed if a ship took out the lower gates of lock 7, thereby stopping a flood of the lower part of the canal and surrounding areas. They didn’t need this because they put a guard gate at lock 7.

I think these secant gates are the current guard gates. I noticed them when I wasl looking for the former location of Bridge #7.

Satellite

.

Bridge #9

This shows Bridge #9 operating. The road across the gates and the bridge was replaced by the Thorold Tunnel.

brocku, cropped

JD Holmes commented on the above post
Found this one online.

Rick Plato: JD Holmes that pic shows it back when it was the road connecting N.F. to Thorold, prior to the tunnel.

.

Bridge #7

Historical Niagara posted four images with the comment: "Many take the Thorold Tunnel daily but before the 1960s  you had to take a Bridge to cross the Canal Bridge #7 THE PETER STREET BRIDGE was replaced by the Tunnel along with Bridge #9 at the Paper Mill..This was a Bascule style and was used a lot on the Canal ..a few still remain .."

Peter D. A. Warwick: Bascule bridge are actually the most common type of bridge on the present canal. Originally there were 9 such bridges, if you count the ones at Homer as being a double bascule. If you look under the bridge you'll see that they are the same design as the others only instead of having the deck at the bottom they have it on top making them also a draw bridge. Today there are 8. The two newest raised bridges on the canal are bascule: Carlton Street in St. Catharines built about 1968 to replace an earlier bridge that was damaged by a boat hitting it and Mellanby Avenue in Port Colborne, which I don't know when it was built. My guess would be the 1980s or 1990s. There were originally 10. Today only 3 remain. There were originally 2 swing bridges. Today none remain.

1

2

3

4