The Co-ordinates will take you to the Canadian National Historic Site plaque in front of the Lift-Locks, beside the Visitor Centre.
These locks are the site of several engineering firsts, and at the time of it's construction it represented the largest structure built out of unreinforced concrete in the world.
The locks require no external power, and raise boats up 19.8 metres. When they were built, the typical rise was closer to 2 metres.
The lift locks and the Trent-Severn Waterway are listed on the
Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) website:
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visit link)
From Wikipedia: (
visit link)
"The Peterborough lift lock is a boat lift located on the Otonabee River in the city of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada and is Lock 21 on the Trent-Severn Waterway.
The dual lifts are the highest hydraulic boat lifts in the world, rising 19.8 m (65 ft). This was a considerable accomplishment when conventional locks usually only had a 2 m (7 ft) rise. However it is not the highest boat lift in the world - the lift at Strépy-Thieu in Belgium being greater in both capacity (1,350 tonnes) and height difference (73.15 m).
No external power is needed, the lift lock functions by gravity alone using a counterweight system. When one side reaches the top position it stops about 5 cm (2 inches) below the adjoining canal's water level. When the gates open water flows into the ship basin until the water level rebalances. The weight of the extra water is enough to power the hydraulic lift. As the top level lowers to the bottom position it pushes the other side up to the top position where the cycle starts over again.
In the 1980s, a visitor's centre was built beside the lock. It offers interactive simulations of going over the lift lock in a boat, and also historical exhibits detailing the construction of the lift lock.
Many local residents of Peterborough skate on the canal below the lift lock in the winter.
The Peterborough lift lock was named a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1987."
More on the Canal itself from Wikipedia: (
visit link)
"The Trent-Severn Waterway is a Canadian canal system formerly used for commercial purposes but now exclusively for pleasure boats, connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to the Georgian Bay portion of Lake Huron at Port Severn. Its major natural waterways include the Trent River, Otonabee River, the Kawartha lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching and the Severn River.
It traverses Southern Ontario's "cottage country" with recreational properties being the primary industry along the waterway. It is open for navigation from May until October.
The total length of the waterway is 386 km, beginning at Trenton, Ontario, with roughly 32 km of man-made channels. There are 44 locks, including 36 conventional locks, two sets of flight locks, hydraulic lift locks at Peterborough and Kirkfield, and a marine railway at Big Chute which transports boats between the upper and lower sections of the Severn. The system also includes 39 swing bridges and 160 dams and control structures that manage the water levels for flood control and navigation on lakes and rivers that drain approximately 18,600 square kilometres of central Ontario's cottage country region, across four counties and three single-tier cities, an area that is home to more than a million Canadians.
It reaches its highest point at Balsam Lake. It is often claimed that this is the highest point on Earth to which a vessel can be navigated from sea level; however, the Rhine–Main–Danube_Canal reaches 406 m at its highest point, compared to the 256,3 m of the Balsam Lake and even within North America there are portions of the Mississippi River that are higher and can be reached.
The Trent-Severn Waterway is managed by Parks Canada under the statutory authority of the Historic Canals Regulations. These regulations outline the Waterway's responsibilities for navigation, resource protection, dredge and fill operations, the operation of boater campgrounds etc. The 386 km navigation corridor includes over 4 500 km of shoreline and over 500 square kilometers of water. More than 125 000 private and commercial properties abut onto the navigation corridor of the Trent-Severn Waterway. The Trent-Severn Waterway also has regulatory responsibility and authority under the Dominion Water Power Act for the 18 hydroelectric generating facilities located along its route.
Recently, a six member independent panel chaired by Doug Downey was appointed to evaluate the waterway's future in May 2007. The panel members heard from more than 1000 people in more than 30 meetings in 16 communities along the waterway. The panel submitted their report to the Federal Minister of the Environment in April 2008. The panel members were: Doug Downey (Chair); Prof. Tom Symons; Greg Bishop; Sandra Barrett; Dean Peters; and Doug Rollins. "