Photo: Signs

These signs are located at the Welland Canals Lock 3 interpretive centre in St Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

These amusing signs show the distances to various ports from Lock 3 near the viewing platform which offers superb views of the lock in operation. The locks were constructed in 1829 in order to link Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. In basic terms, what the canals actually do is allow ships to be hoisted over the Niagara Escarpment by a chain of locks, ultimately in order to sail into the middle of the North American continent.