Barge Canal Lock #28A and 1931 Lyons Dry Dock

Dry Dock: (Satellite)

Lock: (Satellite)

The lock on the left and the dry dock on the right.

Street View, Oct 2013

The lock on the left and the dry dock in the background.

Street View, Oct 2013

"Lift: 19.5 feet. Located alongside the lock, The Lyons Dry Dock is one of three NYS Canal Corporation dry docks. It has gates like those of a lock, boats float in and the water is drained out. At any given time, you can see work being done on tugboats, dredges, derrick boats, and many other vessels." [nycanalmap]

This is the primary maintenance facility for the New York State Canal System. In addition to repairing tugboats, etc., it provides winter storage.

Street View, Aug 2013

Over a decade later, it looks like the derrick barges haven't moved. It appears that these antiques are docked here.

Street View, Jun 2024

Indeed, those work boats are antiques.

hmdb
"The Lyons drydock, located just west of the village was the last drydock built on the New York State Canal System after nearly a century of improvements.

Drydocks like the one at Lyons were needed so that canal boats could be maintained and have a place to winter over. The original Barge Canal plan called for public drydocks at Schuylerville, Waterford, Little Falls, Baldwinsville, Rochester, and Lockport. Later, when the Baldwinsville site was dropped, the facility at Lyons was added.

The Lyons drydock was completed in 1931, with a storehouse and machine shop added the next year. Lyons became one of two principal drydock sites in the canal system (the other was Waterford).

Today, the Lyons shop repairs equipment still used on the canal. The drydock is used to berth tugs in the off season and stores Dipper Dredge No. 3, one of the original Barge Canal dredges."

Digitally Zoomed

Digitally Zoomed

whec 2:51 video
Inside the Erie Canal’s hidden dry dock: Keeping the 200-year-old waterway running

tug44

tug44, another of the many photos on this webpage

Jim DeNearing posted four photos with the comment: "A few pictures of the salvage operation in Lyons dry dock this morning [Jan 22, 2026]. The DB6 is being cut apart for scrap this week."

Dave Eldridge: It was a heavy lift 60 ton crane.

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Gary Prodrick commented on Jim's post
Is this it?

Peter A. DeVito Jr.: Is this the DB that Bunky use to captain, back in the day???

Jim DeNearing: Peter A. DeVito Jr. Sad yes, but this one I can almost understand. The bottom of the barge was in terrible shape. The crane was years past inspection. It just wouldn't have made financial sense to try to fix it.

The real travisty is that there is nowhere designated to put these historic pieces on static display so that future generations can learn about how the canal was maintained after it was built. That's something that most people don't understand. They think that once the canal was opened, that was it. They don't even realize that it takes ongoing maintenance to keep it open.

Comments on Jim's post

Hennepin Canal Aqueduct #7 and Lock #25 near Geneseo, IL

Aqueduct: (Satellite)

Lock: (Satellite)

Hennepin Canal Overview

Hennepin Canal State Park posted
Today's Throwback Thursday photo features the Mixing and Hoisting Plant at Lock 25, west of Geneseo.

This is how I found the lock. It is further away from IL-82 than other maps implied.

1934/34 Geneseo Quad @ 62,500

The aqueduct is intact.

Satellite

1903 8.4mw Bulls Bridge Hydro Powerhouse and Covered Bridge over Housatonic River

Diversion Dam 1: (Satellite)

Diversion Dam 2: (Satellite)

Powerhouse: (Satellite)

Covered Bridge: (Satellite)

John de Sousa posted three photos with the comment: "Bulls Bridge Hydro Powerhouse generators that were installed in 1903 and still running today on the Housatonic River in Connecticut. General Electric's 1,150V, 60 cycle, three-phase alternating current generators at 400 RPM, 1,000 KW capacity governed by Lombard governors. Transformers then up the voltage to 33.5KV to power to it's transmission line to Waterbury and New Britain. This was the largest hydroelectric powerhouse east of the Mississippi at it's time. The last picture shows Reddy Kilowatt still overlooking the generators."

Frank DeWitt: Great history but Niagara Falls Adams plant was Maximum Power Output: 37 Megawatts: 50,000 horsepower (1896)

Mechanicville Power Plant 1897

The world's oldest 3 phase power plant still in operation

Built by by C. P. Steinmetz, it was in the first generation of 3-phase AC power plants in the world

John Freitag: Frank DeWitt The Ames generating station near Ophir, Colorado went on line in 1891 using a 3 phase Westinghouse alternator. It is still in operation. It originally provided power for the Camp Bird Mine.

Sam Brown: 18 pole generators run at 400 rpm. Formula is speed = 120 x frequency/ poles.

Frank Furthur: My father worked building those back in the 1950's. He said they had a 100- years warranty. THAT was the GE Jack Welch destroyed.

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Keith Osborne: Their original exciters are gone. 

Bob Adams: Solid state dc power for the rotor fields !! Less maintenance.

Jeff Follin: Keith Osborne We still have the water wheel driven exciters at LA Power Plant 1. Can black start units that way.

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Ståle Randa: What are the chimneys for?

Ian Foster: Ståle Randa Surge towers perhaps.

VonFricken Kurt: Ian Foster What is a surge tower?

Hal Wright: Provides a pressure relief from sudden changes in water pressure that can cause water hammer, a pressure multiplying effect.

Robert Oppenheimer: VonFricken Kurt In a similar hydro plant I had seen in Potsdam, NY, plant was located downstream of a dam and fed by a large pipe. Valves between feed pipe and turbines were closed abruptly and caused high back pressure in pipe. Rather than burst pipe, water surge was allowed to overflow the stacks. [I did not realize that they were open at the top. I thought the water just compressed air like it does in a house.]

Samuel White: Wow. That plant runs off a very high head. Pelton wheels?

John de Sousa commented on Ian's comment
Correct and still being used.

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Robby Valck commented on Photo 3

John de Sousa commented on John Freitag's comment
Connecticut also had several first generating plant. 1896 Oil City hydro with a 3 phase 11KV line from Windsor to Hartford for street lighting. Developed with the help from GE and Thomas Huston. Another interesting hydroelectric powerhouse was Tariffville, 1899 that was the first eastern transmission line using aluminum conductors to feed Hartford, CT. Oh, another one was Taffville, CT built by GE were the first power insulators developed by GE where used. If your interested in powerplants on the Farmington River, see my article in the March 2018 Crown Jewels magazine.

Street View, Aug 2018

I found this covered bridge while looking for the powerhouse.

Frank Minniti, Jan 2020

Misty Emery, Apr 2024

bob swezey, Mar 2022

 Neyda Hernandez, Jul 2022

I couldn't decide which barrel photo was better, so I used both of them.

Jens Petersen, Aug 2019

I'm glad they put up not only plenty of warning signs, but also a steel beam that will destroy a truck before the truck has a chance to destroy the bridge. And they stop the truck before the bridge where it still has a chance to turn around.

Street View, Aug 2022

Back to the powerhouse. I easily found Diversion Dam 1, but I could not find the powerhouse. I noticed this structure, which looks like a gate house and headrace.

John Sabo, Oct 2017

So I followed the headrace downstream and found the powerhouse.

Satellite

So, the headrace stays up on a bluff while the river goes down in a gorge. I got a topo map so that I could study the contour lines. The map marks the power canal.

1958 Kent and 1958 Dover Plains Quads @ 24,000

FirstLight
6 units generate 8.4mw

PowerMag
"Bulls Bridge delivers about 8.2 to 8.4 MW of generation at full capacity, with a discharge capability of 1,200 cubic feet per second. The plant annually generates about 30.8 GWh of power, ranking it third in hydroelectric output, and 38th overall among Connecticut power plants of all types....The plant today utilizes six horizontal double-runner Model F-1 Francis turbine units that were originally installed in 1903. Each unit is coupled to General Electric generators (one of those units has replaced the original equipment). The turbine-generator units are fed by water routed through a power canal that is just more than two miles long, with water carried through 420-foot-long penstocks that take the water under about 105 feet of hydraulic head down to the powerhouse."
[The mention of the horizontal shafts reminded me that the Kingsbury Thrust Bearing was not invented until 1904.]

This source specifies an annual production of 45gwh.

hydro, p5

This powerhouse was the first one built of several along the river.

hydro, p3

PowerMag
In 2025, the old downstream breakers were replaced.

PowerMag
The new breakers use a vacuum interrupter to quickly distinguish the arcs. And, of course, all the high-voltage components are now contained in cabinets for safety.

Ira Fink posted two photos with the comment: "Bulls Bridge Hydro Plant. Just upstream from the bridge."

Billy M Edwards: There's a video of it tripping and water coming out the surge tower.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Gyty5uC0Q

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hvatoday
In addition to hydropower, there were blast furnaces and marble & limestone quarries along the river.

1959 Business US-21 Woods Memorial Bridge over Beaufort River in Beaufort, SC

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Explore Beaufort, SC posted

The Woods Memorial Bridge has been turning since 1959. The first Lady's Island bridge was opened way back in 1927, providing the first land access to the #bftseaislands. A new bridge was constructed to replace it in 1959, and then was renamed Richard V. Woods Memorial Bridge in 1971.

It's one of only a handful of swing bridges in South Carolina still in use today, and we just love her to pieces. 💕 #beaufortsc 

Story 👉 bit.ly/3dKEASX

📸 Corey Gibson

Ryan Thomas: Instead of replacing it, let's just stop over developing green, pristine land that makes this area special and instead force redevelopment of already vacant, blighted, eyesore properties that already have infrastructure and access to businesses.

Adam Zolyak Flickr via ArchivedBridgeHunter

HistoricBridges
This 2,290' (698m) long bridge has a main span of 248' (75.6m).

ExploreBeaufortSC, photo by Explore Beaufort
"The original bridge to the islands was also a swing bridge and was built in 1927. Before that, the only way to reach Lady’s Island, St. Helena Island and the rest of the sea islands was by boat. The current swing bridge was opened on December 17th, 1959 and is named in memory of Richard V. Woods (1935–1969), who was a South Carolina Highway Patrol officer killed in the line of duty....It stood in for a bridge over the Mississippi River in the popular film, Forrest Gump and is one of the most photographed of all of Beaufort’s landmarks."

Street View, May 2022

1899 Layton Bridge over Youghiogheny River and Tunnel Replacement near Perryopolis, PA

Historic Bridge: (broken Archived Bridge Hunter; broken Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Tunnel: (Satellite)

New Bridge: (Satellite, planned)

The bridge is pin connected.

HistoricBridges
It was built by a railroad and abandoned in 1931. It opened has a single lane road bridge in 1933

In the background, we are looking through the tunnel.

Street View, Oct 2024

The ends of the tunnels are brick lined, but most of it appears to be bare rock.

Street View, Oct 2024

The pattern left by drill and blasting is interesting.

Street View, Oct 2024

I find it amusing that they are building a "river structure" instead of a bridge. What is so offensive about "bridge" that someone felt a need to invent a euphemism? 

Bill Ball posted

PSA: They broke ground last week and phase 1 starts next Monday [Jan 19, 2026]. It's gonna get pretty busy the next few years if you fish down this way.

https://share.google/AOOhXi2aacnRiGLLy

Jimmy Laux: I hope they leave the tunnel and old bridge add it to the bike trail somehow.

Bill Ball: Jimmy Laux it's going to filled with foam and sealed at both ends.

A shuttle service will be provided to bypass the 1.2 miles of the closed Great Allegheny Passage Trail.

pa, p6

Once again, a demonstration that listing a structure on a historic register just increases the red tape that needs to be processed. It doesn't preserve the artifact.

pa, p13

MonValleyIndependent

pa_projects
"Once the new bridge and roadway are complete, the old Layton Bridge will be removed and the tunnel will be closed."
[Why not make it a branch off the GAP Trail? The rock in the tunnel looked very competent, and I don't think the Coast Guard cares. I found no evidence that there is any barge traffic this far upriver.]

Vasas Media added seven photos with the comment: "With the construction of the new bridge starting soon, I’ve been wanting to make my way back out to Layton to photograph the old bridge and tunnel before they’re gone. Thankfully the weather was beautiful Friday morning and allowed me to capture it at sunrise. Completed in 1899, and converted for car use in ‘33, this bridge has carried countless people back and forth across the Youghiogheny. I’ve heard it even made an appearance in a movie or two. I wonder if the new bridge will also last 127 years."

https://www.pa.gov/agencies/penndot/projects-near-you/district-12-projects/layton-bridge

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