William Hamilton Merritt had incorporated the Welland…

William Hamilton Merritt had incorporated the Welland Canal Company in 1824, in part to provide a regular flow of water for his mills.

Construction had begun at Allanburg on November 30, at a point now marked as such on the west end of Bridge #11 (formerly Highway 20).

It opens for a trial run on November 30, 1829 (exactly five years, to the day, after the 1824 sod turning).

After a short ceremony at Lock One, in Port Dalhousie, the schooner Annie & Jane makes the first transit, up-bound to Buffalo, New York; with Merritt a passenger on her decks.

The twenty-eight-mile-(forty-five kilometer-) long canal bypasses Niagara Falls with eight locks to compensate for the three hundred and twenty-eight-foot (one hundred meter) difference in elevation between Lakes Erie and Ontario.