Peterborough Lift Locks

Location: Hunter Street East Peterborough

The Peterborough Hydraulic Lift Lock, a Canadian National Historic Site, officially opened in 1904 and will soon be celebrating it's Centennial. This engineering wonder, recognized by several engineering organizations both in Canada and the United States, continues to impress thousands of tourists and boaters each year with visitor number one million passing through the doors of the Visitor Centre during the celebratory year of 2004.
 
The Peterborough Hydraulic Lift Lock was constructed as a means of overcoming a significant drop in elevation during the building of the Trent-Severn Waterway. After eight years of construction and considerable challenges, hundreds including dignitaries from Ottawa who made the journey by train, attended the Official Opening of the Lift Lock on Saturday,
July 9th, 1904.

At the time the lock was built, the lock was the first to use concrete technology, deemed the highest lift lock in the world as well as the largest structure in the world to be constructed using unreinforced concrete. The Peterborough Hydraulic Lift Lock remains the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world today.

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