Burlington Canal Lift Bridge
Posted by: 
yorelken
N 43° 17.934 W 079° 47.697
17T E 597744 N 4794712
A lift bridge over the Burlington Canal which connects Hamilton, Ontario to Lake Ontario.
Waymark Code: WM61F
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 01/14/2006
Views: 163
Burlington Canal Lift Bridge -
The Waterfront Trail leads down to the canal. No need to go on the roadway. Please post a picture of you with your GPS by the bridge.
The Burlington Canal Lift Bridge is located on the western shore of Lake Ontario on a site rich in history. The bridge spans the Burlington Canal that was opened in 1826. Once a narrow cut, the canal now provides Burlington Bay (Hamilton Harbour) with navigable access to the Atlantic Ocean. The canal connected the Hamilton Harbour industrial region to international trade and commerce. It was among a series of waterway projects begun, 200 years ago, to provide navigation from Lake Erie to the Atlantic Ocean. Today the Burlington Canal remains a busy waterway and is vital to the area commerce.
There were five different moveable bridges located on this site since 1830. The present bridge was opened in 1962 and carried two lanes of vehicular traffic across the canal. This structure originally had tracks for the Hamilton — Northwestern railway which were removed in 1982 when the road way was widened to four lanes.
The bridge structure is a tower driven, vertical lift and moveable bridge. The lift span is 380 feet long, weighs 2200 tons and has a vertical lift of 110 feet. A system originating in the towers contains machinery, sheaves and wire ropes is used to move the lift span. There is one 150 horsepower drive motor in each tower to supply power to the machinery and one 150 horsepower motor in each tower to synchronize the drive motors.
The navigation season usually runs from late March to late December. During the winter shut down, the bridge staff overhaul the tower drive gear.
Since its installation, the bridge has been operated in excess of 166,380 times, allowing the passage of over 250,000 vessels. On a yearly basis, the bridge will operate approximately 4000 times allowing approximately 6500 vessels to pass through the canal; this includes more than 1000 cargo-carrying vessels.
The bridge lifts on-demand for all large vessels and on the hour and half hour for pleasurecraft. In order to ensure safety, the bridge must be raised early since in the event of a failure, we need to provide the vessel time to turn since a fully loaded vessel can take in excess of a mile to stop.
Visit Instructions:
1) After you've found a vertical lift bridge, go visit it, get the coordinates, a picture or two of it, and if it is in use or not still as a lift bridge.
Then log it and post your pictures! At least one of the photos must be of you and your GPS there with the bridge in the background. (No old vacation shots or photos off the internet!)
2) Include the coordinates, city/county/state/country and the name of the bridge (if it has one).
3) Include any interesting information about the structure