Traveling Along the Erie Canal, Lockport NY (Sept. 28, 2014) and Macedon NY (Sept. 29, 2014) [Erie Canal]

Erie Canal, Lockport NY

I got a mule and her name is Sal

Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal

["The Erie Canal Song" - Low Bridge, Everybody Down - (Written by: Thomas Allen in 1905)] 

The Place

Erie Canal, Lockport NY

Lake Erie is connected to Lake Ontario by way of the Niagara River.  The River drops 175 feet between the Lakes at the famed Niagara Falls down the Niagara Escarpment.  So how can ships full of goods and minerals get between the lakes and on to the Atlantic Ocean?  In the early 1800s, New York started building the Erie Canal connecting Lake Erie and the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and ultimately New York City.   With the canal they could hurry goods to the insatiable city, and to the large harbor for saltwater shipping.

Erie Canal Locks 34 & 35, Lockport NY

The Adventure

After leaving Lake Erie and Buffalo, the first change in elevation was at Lockport, NY, this time dropping 65 feet down the Niagara Escarpment.  The early canal broke this drop up into 5 smaller locks.  Later additions to the canal changed them to 2 very powerful locks, which are now known as Locks 34 & 35. 

We visited locks 34 & 35.  The drop is so pronounced that you feel like you are standing on the side of a cliff when you look down from the upper lock.  To either side of the locks, the canal meanders peacefully along.  We watched several boats going through them, and then walked along the Erie Canal.   

Erie Canal, Lockport NY

Old Spillway, Erie Canal Lock 34 & 35, Lockport NY

As we traveled further east, we visited the Canal again, just south of Rochester NY in the little town of Macedon NY.  There, by the side of the road is a parking lot, and lock 30 on the Canal.  This lock only has a 16 foot change in elevation.  You can cross the lock on a cat walk that is attached to the top of the two lock gates.  This is a sleepy lock with very little action, and a slow moving canal coming into and going away from the lock.  We walked along the tow path and watched teenage boys fishing in the Canal.  On the other side of the path where we were walking are homes.  Imagine living alongside the Erie Canal!   Two miles down the road is the town of Palmyra and lock 29, and (no doubt) more boys fishing.

 We felt like we were walking in the footsteps of history.

Erie Canal, Macedon NY

Erie Canal, Macedon NY

Erie Canal Lock Gates, Lock 30, Macedon NY

The Canal

 The Erie Canal was started in 1825.  It became very well used, and the vessels that used it grew bigger so it was enlarged in 1862.  By 1918 the advent of motorized boats meant that mules and towpaths were no longer necessary, so the canalway was enlarged again and moved in some sections into rivers and lakes.  It is 363 miles from Lake Erie to Albany NY.

Source for song lyrics:  http://www.eriecanalvillage.net/pages/song.html

Information about Erie Canal from Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor materials.