Old Port Locks | Lachine Canal National Historic Site

The Old Port Locks at the Lachine Canal stand out for the series of massive, hand-cranked iron gears that once regulated the water levels. Before they became a historic site, these locks acted as the essential bottleneck for Canada's nineteenth-century industrial economy. In eighteen forty-three, a freighter captain famously jammed the mechanism for three days after a dispute over tolls, forcing a line of barges to wait in the heat until the local militia arrived to force the gate open.