Erie Canal Map Explorer

Watervliet / West Troy

Watervliet, formerly known as West Troy, is six miles north of Albany. It had a natural basin and dockage along the Hudson River. During the 19th century it was the site of the one of the first cannon foundries, later the Watervliet Arsenal. Heavily lobbied by the City of Troy was a sidecut at 23 ^rd  Street which was incorporated into the original plans for the Canal and provided a direct connection across the Hudson River to Troy. This helped establish Troy as a major point of commerce for the Canal. Later, an additional side cut was added further south at the entrance to the Arsenal. Just above the sidecut at 23rd Street was the site of a weighlock.

Cohoes

Prior to the Canals, Cohoes was sparsely populated, with the Cohoes Manufacturing Company taking advantage of the water power from Cohoes Falls. The Clinton Ditch Canal in Cohoes was finished in 1823. Cohoes was the site of the juncta of the Clinton Ditch and Champlain canals. The Clinton Ditch followed Main Street through Cohoes. With the enlargement of the Canal, the route was moved west of Main Street. On the Enlarged Canal was the famous flight of locks. These sixteen locks from #3 to #18 overcame the majority of the 200’ elevation change from Albany to Schenectady.

Halfmoon - Rexford

By routing the Canal on the north side of the Mohawk River from Crescent to Rexford, New York State saved $75,000 in construction costs. This route was 30% less expensive than following the southern side of the river. The Crescent Aqueduct, or Lower Mohawk River Aqueduct, crossed the Mohawk River from Albany County into Crescent (Halfmoon) in Saratoga County. The aqueduct was built from 1823 to 1824 and enlarged in 1842. The later version was constructed of random ashlar masonry, probably limestone. Its length was 1,137 feet, with 25 masonry arches to support the towpath. It was at an elevation of 189 feet and had an interior width of 40 ½ feet. It is approximately 12 ½ miles from the Albany Terminus.

Schenectady

Schenectady was separated from Albany by 30 miles and 27 locks by canal. Due to length of time needed to pass through that section of the Canal, passengers headed west from Albany usually chose to take a stagecoach from Albany to Schenectady and then board the boat there, thus saving around 24 hours of time. Fast packet boats ran from Schenectady to Buffalo in 50 to 70 hours. These boats were often fined $10 for excessive speed.

Rotterdam Junction

The 1705  Mabee Farm  is located in this area and is the oldest in the Mohawk Valley. Philip Schuyler stayed at the farm while surveying for the Western Inland Navigation and Lock Company. The Erie Canal ran close to the banks of the Mohawk River here. The well preserved Lock #23 is easily accessible in this area.

Fort Hunter - Schoharie Aqueduct

Fort Hunter is named for the fort built in 1712 on the Schoharie Creek. In 1820 the fort was removed to make way for the Erie Canal. The original Canal crossed the Creek via a slack water pool created by a log and stone dam. Boats would be towed; mules and horses would be ferried. In the 1830's, the Enlarged Canal was moved slightly north, and an aqueduct was constructed by Otis Eddy between 1839 and 1841. The aqueduct spanned 624 feet and had 14 arches. The  Schoharie Crossing State Historical Site  contains remnants of the Clinton Ditch canal and lock #20, with enlarged lock #29 adjacent. Nearby is the well-preserved Lock #28, the Yankee Lock of the Enlarged Erie Canal.

Sprakers - Big Nose - Little Nose

Discovered by Erie Canal Surveyor James Geddes in 1810, this gap in the Appalachian Mountains provided a westward path for the Canal along the Mohawk River. The Big Nose - Little nose gap provided a natural pathways from the eastern seaboard to the Great Lakes. The remains of  Lock 31  are nearby at the east end of the Sprakers Village.

Fort Plain

The opening of the Erie Canal stimulated the village to become a center of manufacturing during the nineteenth century. It produced textiles from cotton imported from the Deep South as well as furniture. The town straddles the Otsquago Creek, which supported numerous mills and manufacturing in the early hamlet.

Significant canal structures include Lock 32 with a lift of 7.759 feet, Aqueduct #11 over Otsquago Creek with five spans and a length of 126 feet, and the Zoller Culvert #60 (a stone box structure), and bridges #113 to #118.

Little Falls

The locks at Little Falls spanned the rapids of the Mohawk River in this area. The first attempts to overcome the portage in the area were made by the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company. At Little Falls, an aqueduct of 1,184 feet crossed the river, serving as feeder for the Canal, and more importantly connecting the Canal to the Village.

Ilion

In 1828, Eliphalet Remington used the location of the Canal to establish a global market for his typewriters and rifles. In 1843, the community sought to establish a name and Remington, not wanting his hometown to be named after him, insisted that another name be chosen. The postmaster suggested Ilion, the Greek word for Troy.

Rome

The first shovel of earth was turned for the Erie Canal on July 4 ^th , 1817, at the present site of 530 Henry Street. The Clinton's Ditch bypassed Rome slightly to the south, upsetting the town's interests. The Canal Engineer for this section was  Benjamin Wright  of Rome, New York. The lessons learned from building the Canal set the stage for schools of engineering to emerge in the United States. Among the first of these was the forerunner of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.

Canastota

The village of Canastota was incorporated in 1835, but prior to incorporation was a trading and commercial center for a wide surrounding agricultural area.  Nathan Smith Roberts  of Canastota was a protege of canal engineer  Benjamin Wright.  He went on to become Chief Engineer and surveyor for the Canal from Rome to Syracuse. In 1822 he was sent to find the path over the Niagara Escarpment in Lockport.

Syracuse

Syracuse is about halfway between Albany and Buffalo. It was organized in 1820's with the coming of the Canal. Joshua Forman, a resident of Syracuse, was an important early proponent of the Canal and strongly supported the Canal as an Assemblyman in 1807. It has the only remaining weighlock building and serves as the  Erie Canal Museum . Salt was a critical part of the early economy, and the area had important salt springs and deposits. By 1862, salt production was at nine million bushels per year.

Montezuma

Salt production was an important early industry in Montezuma and was developed from local salt springs. Originally, the Clinton Ditch used a slack water dam to cross the Seneca River.  During enlargement of the Canal, the massive Richmond Aqueduct (1849-1856) was constructed. This had 31 stones arches and was 11 feet high and 22 feet wide. It was the second-largest aqueduct built on the Enlarged Erie and cost $125,000 to build. The Seneca Canal junction was also located in Montezuma, opening a path to the Finger Lakes.

Lyons

Lyons was incorporated in 1831, and it is situated at the junction of Mud Creek and Canandaigua outlet, taking on the name of Lyon, France. It is 181 miles from Albany and 34 miles from Rochester. It is home to the Poorhouse Lock #56, named after the poor house located about a quarter mile away. Farmers in the 1820's discovered that land along the Mud Creek grew peppermint in the mucky soil. Through the 1800’s, the Hotchkiss Essential Oil Company was a major producer of peppermint, selling essential oils in New York City and Europe.

Fairpoint - Perinton

Originally the village of Fairport was a swampy area within the Town of Perinton until the 1820's. This swamp was drained for the construction of the Canal. It quickly became a busy canal port with a reputation for being a "fair port." Nearby is the Great Embankment which was the critical element to enable the routing of the Canal from the Seneca River to Rochester. This route was first identified by James  Geddes  in his surveys of 1808. It is reported he shouted, "Eureka!” upon identifying this route for the Canal.  This one-mile embankment is over 70 feet high and is a one mile long, spanning the Irondequoit Creek in its “U” shaped valley. At the creek was a large stone culvert 25 feet high, 30 feet wide, and 100 feet long. The work on the embankment employed 3,000 Irish laborers. Work started in 1821 and was completed in October 1822.

Rochester

Rochester has one of the longest Canal aqueducts, carrying the Canal 802 feet across the Genesee River. The Genesee River has the swiftest current of any of the rivers that the Erie Canal crossed. The stone structure is one of the largest on the Canal and is three city blocks long, with main arches 50 feet across. Building of the first Rochester aqueduct started in 1822 and was completed in 1823. As evidence of the success of the canal, Rochester’s increased in population from 1,502 in 1820 to 36,403 in 1850.  With power from the Genesee Falls, Rochester became a flour milling city, with 10,000 barrels departing within 10 days of the canal’s opening.

Lockport

In July of 1821 only three families resided in Lockport; by 1825 over 1,500 were in the village. Located at the eastern end of the deep cut, a double flight of five locks were constructed to carry boats up and down the 60-foot rise needed for the Canal. This area presented a major engineering challenge to overcome the rise of the Niagara Escarpment. The original Clinton's Ditch had a unique design of a double set of five combined locks, each 90 feet long by 15 feet wide, with a lift of 12 feet.

Black Rock Harbor and Guard Lock

A considerable fight for the terminus of the Canal was fought between the communities of Buffalo and Black Rock. The controversy continued until June 1822 and was finally settled by the legislature in February 1825. The Black Rock Guard lock was the last lock going west, before the Canal entered the Niagara River. Its purpose was to protect the Canal to the north from high water in Black Rock Harbor. In 1843 this lock was lengthened by 20 feet, and further enlarged starting in 1854.

Buffalo

In surveys of 1816 and 1817, Buffalo was identified as the terminus of the Erie Canal by the Canal Commission. In the spring of 1820, the Buffalo Harbor Company commenced development of piers extending into Lake Erie. In February of 1822 the canal engineers Wright, Thomas, Roberts, and White provided an opinion that the Canal should terminate at Buffalo Creek, thereby outbidding Black Rock. There were fewer than 3,000 people in Buffalo in 1822.