To bypass the rapids, the North West Company completed the first lock and canal in 1798 (destroyed during the War of 1812). Since then, locks of increasing size have been constructed; today, the enormous ships of the Great Lakes are able to bypass the rapids by four parallel locks on the American side of the river. These locks handle in excess of 8,000 lockages per year and an average of more than 73 million tonnes/80 million tons of cargo annually. In 1998 a newly constructed lock was opened within the existing Canadian lock, which had been closed for a number of years; the new lock handles recreational craft only.