What to See in Welland - Top Sights and Attractions

Canadian war memorials are buildings, monuments, and statues that commemorate the armed actions in the territory encompassing modern Canada, the role of the Canadian military in conflicts and peacekeeping operations, and Canadians who died or were injured in a war. Much of this military history of Canada is commemorated today with memorials across the country and around the world. Canadian memorials commemorate the sacrifices made as early as the Seven Years' War to the modern day War on Terror. As Newfoundland was a British Dominion until joining Confederation in 1949, there are several monuments in Newfoundland and Labrador and abroad which were dedicated to Newfoundland servicemen and women.

There are currently 6,293 war memorials in Canada registered with the National Inventory of Military Memorials, which is under the Canadian Department of Veterans Affairs. There are also war memorials across the world, some of which are operated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which are dedicated to Canada as well as the Commonwealth members. There currently are 17 in France, six in Belgium, four in the United Kingdom, two in Afghanistan and South Korea, and one each in Egypt, Hong Kong, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

There are few examples of memorial art created by Indigenous peoples before the late nineteenth century. One of the best-preserved memorials is in Áísínai’pi, or Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, in southern Alberta. This UNESCO World Heritage Site houses an extensive series of small-scale petroglyphs incised on the sandstone bluffs of the Milk River, a number of them dating to thousands of years ago.^[1]

Sports complex in Welland, Ontario. The Welland International Flatwater Centre is a current canoeing, kayaking and rowing facility in Welland, Ontario, Canada and was used for the 2013 ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships and the 2015 Pan American Games. The facility was renovated in 2013, before the U23 championships began.

For the Championships and the Pan American Games improvements to the venue included widening of the canal to bring the venue up to conditions and meet international standards, and also saw the addition of buildings along the course. The facility's improvements cost about $10 million Canadian dollars.

The facility has hosted many competitions in many sports among them canoeing, open water swimming and dragon boat racing. After the games the facility reverted to a public use canal.

The facility is set to host the 2018 Canoe Polo World Championships.^[2]

Swing bridge in Ontario. The Welland Canal Bridge 15 is a two-track Baltimore truss swing bridge located in the disused section of the Welland Canal within the city of Welland, Ontario. This section of canal is now known as the Welland Recreational Waterway. The bridge formerly carried the main line of the Canada Southern Railway over the canal.

As a result of the Welland Canal Relocation Project in the early 1970s, the CASO line was rerouted through the Townline Tunnel, bypassing this bridge. One track crossing Bridge 15 remained in service as an interchange line between the Canadian National Railway Canal Subdivision through Welland and the new Wainfleet Marshalling Yard at Wainfleet, Ontario. In the late 1980s, service on this line between Welland and Wainfleet ended and the track was removed between Wainfleet and a point a couple of hundred meters west of Bridge 15.

The bridge remains in use today exclusively to serve Vesuvius Industries in Welland. It is owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), but is not connected to any other CPR tracks. It is used only sporadically by Trillium Railway, and chain link fence gates have been installed at both ends of the bridge to keep trespassers off.

Bridge 15 is visually similar to the Montrose Swing Bridge located on the Welland River approximately 15 km away; however, that bridge is a Warren Truss, as opposed to the rarer Baltimore Truss of Bridge 15. The two bridges were constructed at approximately the same time. The Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Railway Swing Bridge over the canal (Bridge 8) at Thorold, Ontario was also constructed at approximately the same time. That bridge, built for interurbans and light electric freight locomotives, was a lighter construction and only carried a single track. Bridge 8 no longer exists.^[4]

Dain City is a small suburb at the southernmost part of Welland, Ontario, Canada. At one time, it was a mostly self-contained rural community at the junction of two significant rail lines, part of the Township of Humberstone, and was called Welland Junction. The name was changed to Dain City after it was annexed to the city of Welland in the mid-1950s. Dain City was built for, and by, the Marshall Dain Manufacturing Company, the area's main employer, as a "company town".

In September 2008, John Deere announced it would be close its plant with a loss of 800 jobs and relocate to Wisconsin and Mexico by the end of 2009.

The geography and character of Dain City is largely a factor of its proximity to the Welland Canal, the only shipping channel between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie in the Great Lakes system. For many years, the canal ran along Dain City's western side and through the city of Welland itself, with numerous bends and bridges along the way. Those included two lift bridges in Dain City, However, in April 2019, The Forks Road Bridge (Bridge 18.) was removed, Only the Train Bridge (Bridge 17) Remains. The completion of the Welland By-Pass in 1973, a massive six-year excavation project to by-pass the whole city of Welland with a wider and straighter channel, significantly altered and isolated Dain City, turning it into a peninsula with the new canal on its eastern side and the old and new canals meeting at its southern tip.

Dain City's lift bridge's lift capabilities were removed in the 1980s, although it is still in use by vehicular traffic.

Notably, Dain City was once home to a large drive-in theater, the Welland Drive-In, located on the south side of Forks Road between the old rail line and the new canal, constructed in 1954 and torn down in 1981.

Dain City contains four housing subdivisions: "Glennwood Park", "Regatta Park", "Seaway Village", and "Welland Junction". The old canal, renamed the Welland Recreational Waterway, hosts international rowing regattas and dragon boat races annually, and also the South Niagara Rowing Club, which is affiliated with area high schools.^[5]