For some reason or other, every now and then some man tries to jump the falls in a barrel, and at least one man has done it and lived. But boats on Lake Erie that wanted to go to Lake Ontario couldn’t jump the falls, So men dug a river around Niagara Falls from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and put water steps in it so that boats could go downhill to Lake Ontario or uphill to Lake Erie. This man-made river is called the Well and Canal.

It may seem strange for a boat to step downhill, but it not only can step downhill, it can step up too. A water step down a hill is called a “lock,” and a lock is like a huge bathtub set in the canal. Perhaps you have floated toy boats in your bathtub. If you have, you know that as you fill the tub the boat rises as the water rises, and as you let the water run out of the tub the boat lowers as the water lowers.

Now a canal lock works the same way with large boats as the bathtub with small boats. If a boat wants to go downhill it sails into the lock. The water in the lock is then let out and the boat lowers as the water lowers. When the boat is at the bottom, doors at the end of the lock are opened and the boat sails out on the lower canal. If a boat wants to go uphill it sails into the bottom of the lock through the open doors, the doors are then closed, and the water is turned on. As it fills the lock the boat rises with it, for water will lift anything that ill float, no matter whether it be the smallest chip or the biggest ship. Water, just plain water, has more power to lift and lower the largest steamship than even giant machinery would have. It lifts the largest battle-ship as easily and softly as it would the lightest feather floating on the surface—as easily as you might lift a snowflake on your hand.

Boats that wanted to go to New York City—and almost all boats did want to go to New York—once had to go down through the Welland Canal and locks to Lake Ontario, then all the way out the St. Lawrence River, which runs from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean, then sail down the coast to New York. To avoid this long detour, this long way round, men dug a canal all the way across New York State from Buffalo on Lake Erie to the Hudson River, so that big boats can now cut across from Lake Erie to New York City. This is called the Barge Canal. It’s one of the longest canals in the World.