Homer Bridge, Vertical lift bridge on Welland Canal, Ontario, Canada.
Homer Bridge is a vertical lift bridge spanning the Welland Canal in Ontario, connecting Queenston Road to Niagara Regional Road 81. It uses a movable deck truss system that raises to allow cargo vessels to pass underneath.
The Homer Bridge is a vertical lift bridge on the Fourth Welland Canal, the waterway completed in 1932 that replaced three earlier canals and reduced the lock count to eight. Its movable span lets ships up to 225.5 m long pass; the Garden City Skyway overhead limits masts to 35.5 m. The canal's first trial run was on 30 November 1829, when the schooner Anne & Jane carried William Hamilton Merritt upbound to Buffalo.
The bridge crosses the canal near Homer, a crossing point on the Welland Canal where the channel runs between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Ships using the canal are limited to masts of 35.5 m because the Garden City Skyway passes overhead, and a transit of the canal takes about eleven hours. The canal carries roughly 3,000 ships and 40 million tonnes of cargo a year.
The bridge is accessible to both vehicles and pedestrians, with good viewing angles from the canal banks. During closures of nearby skyways, traffic increases here, so allow extra time if crossing by car.
The Welland Canal's eight locks are 24.4 m wide; seven lift locks raise or lower ships 13 to 15 m each, while the southernmost guard lock is 349.9 m long. The Garden City Skyway overhead limits passing masts to 35.5 m, and a full canal transit averages about eleven hours.
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