Industrial History: Lock #8 (last one) on the Oswego Canal

The Oswego Canal is part of the Erie Barge Canal System. I never realized that there was this branch canal to Lake Ontario until I saw this post.

Dave Yager posted, cropped

Lock #8 in Oswego, NY. The start of the Lake Ontario entrance to the Erie Barge Canal.

We used to run molasses from New York City to Montréal, Toronto and Hamilton through the canal in the late 80's and early 90's. I personally made 24 trips so 48 trips through the Erie Barge Canal and Hudson River.

The blue rack over the lock is for height restrictions. If you can't get under that you're not going anywhere because you won't be able to get under a lot of the other bridges along the way either.

30 locks each way. First 8 go up, the last 22 go right down to sea level at Troy, NY.

Jolene Femiano: And as the canal continues west of the Oswego river, the bridges get even lower, so all the taller pleasure boaters have to head north on the river to Lake Ontario if they want to access Lake Erie 👌🏽 commercial shipping by way of barge is slowly but surely making a come back here on the Erie Canal!

I'm reluctant to write notes on the Erie Canal because so much has been written on it. Until I do, this map shows this canal branch.