The Murray Canal is a canal in the municipalities of

Quinte West Quinte West () is a city, geographically located in but List of Ontario separated municipalities, administratively separated from Hastings County, in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is on the western end of the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario. The Lake ...

and

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and runs from the western end of the

Bay of Quinte The Bay of Quinte () is a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter "Z" on the northern shore of Lake Ontario in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is just west of the head of the Saint Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of ...

to Presqu'ile Bay on

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

. It is approximately in length and has a maximum depth of . The canal shortens the trip for boats wishing to access Lake Ontario from the central and western Bay of Quinte by avoiding having to go around the whole peninsula of Prince Edward County. Prior to the canal, ships transporting goods to Quinte had to unload at the Carrying Place docks and then move them across land via a wooden railway. The canal was proposed as early as 1796 and land was set aside by the government of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

. However, the

Welland Canal The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Ontario, Canada, and part of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway. The canal traverses the Niagara Peninsula between Port Weller, Ontario, Port Weller on Lake Ontario, and Port Colborne on Lak ...

and the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal is a 202-kilometre long canal that links the Ottawa River at Ottawa with the Cataraqui River and Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Its 46 Lock (water navigation), locks raise boats from the Ottawa River 83 metres (272 ...

were seen as more important and construction was delayed. Construction was begun in 1882 and because of problems with unstable banks it took until 1889 to complete the canal. The canal is crossed by two swing bridges (

Ontario Highway 33 King's Highway 33, commonly referred to as Highway 33 or Loyalist Parkway, is a Ontario Provincial Highway Network, provincially maintained highway in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. The route begins at Ontar ...

and County Rd 64). An unused railway bridge is kept permanently open but the former

CN Rail The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

tracks have since been removed with the creation of the Millennium Trail. A swing bridge at Hutchison Road has been removed with only the bridge footings remaining. The canal saw many years of use with coal and other commercial boats, but after the

St. Lawrence Seaway The St. Lawrence Seaway () is a system of rivers, locks, canals and channels in Eastern Canada and Northern United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North America, as far inland ...

opened in 1959, the traffic declined. Since then there has been a steady rise in recreational use and today the Murray Canal is used by boaters who visit the

Trent–Severn Waterway The Trent–Severn Waterway is a canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, at Port Severn. Its major natural waterways include the Trent River, Otonabee River, Kawartha Lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching ...

References

External links

* Powles, Colin. Canadian Parks Service. ''A Construction, Operations and Maintenance History of the Murray Canal''. 1991. * {{coord, 44, 02, 49, N, 77, 37, 39, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark_scale:100000_source:GeographicalNamesBoardofCanada, display=title Canals in Ontario Canals opened in 1889