This lock has a 6.9' (2.1m) lift. "It is the last of three locks (including E21 and E22) that lowers westbound boats on the Erie Canal....Lock E23 has the distinction of being the “busiest lock on the system” due to its proximity to Oneida Lake and Sylvan Beach." Locks #21, #22 and #23 are the only ones on the canal that descend for westbounds. Construction was complete in 1915. The guard gate was added in 1935. [HAER]
I had noticed in John's video below that the tow was going down whereas it was going up when I studied Lock #24. Zooming out on a map, the barge canal going down and then back up is because it crosses the Seneca and Oswego River Valley.
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| Street View, May 2023 [The white building on the left is a powerhouse. As of the writing of the HAER, 2009, it was still operational.] |
The lock is in the Anthony Cut. [mapquest]
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| John Kucko Digital 2:10 video @ 1:04 WATCH— Footbridge on the Move: Observing the locks in action along the iconic Erie Canal never ceases to amaze me. Watch here as the two barges, carrying the massive footbridge ultimately to Buffalo and Ralph Wilson Park there, are split up and sent through Lock 23 in Brewerton, NY—one at a time. Carver Marine Towing has been charged with the move along the entire canal. This is a tedious process—one that is necessary as this enormous structure is transported the way things were some 199 years ago. I’ll keep providing updates here on the page as they continue to make their way toward Western New York. The plan is to have this arrive in Buffalo on 7-16, yes—#716Day. Stay tuned… |
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| Tug44 Lock E-23 in Brewerton is the first lock on the western side of Oneida Lake. It has a guard gate to divert flood waters into another channel to protect the lock. This is the westbound view of the 7 foot lift lock. |
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| Tug44 The eastbound view, with the Syracuse exiting the lock, turning to avoid Tug 44 tied at the lower wall. [Another photo shows that the well shaded tie-up wall is a lot longer than what we see in this photo.] |
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| marinas |
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| Boat Deal posted Lock 23 last day with a boat in tow!!! |
Bob Stern posted three photos with the comment: "Lock 23 of the enlarged canal, off the Erie Canal Bikeway near the current Lock 8 of the Barge Canal Rotterdam NY."
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| 3 Howard Ohlhous: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=93716 |
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| hmdb About 3000 feet from modern Lock 8 is Lock 23, built in 1841 during the enlargement of the Erie Canal (1836-1862). It replaced original Erie Canal Lock 26. Enlarging the canal became imperative by the mid-1830's after user demand outstripped the capacity of the first Erie Canal. The Enlarged Erie Canal deepened the canal prism from four to seven feet and widened it from forty to seventy feet for accommodating larger and heavier barges. Single-chambered locks were replaced by double-chambered locks allowing barges to pass in the either direction at the same time. One of the two locks here was lengthened again in 1889 to provide greater capacity, although by then the Canal was losing customers and volume to a railroad system that had been expanding since the Civil War. Today, Lock 23 is a relic, replaced in 1918 by Lock 8 of the modern Erie Canal which employed the current technology of the early 20th century: electricified locks, steel lock gates and a 12-foot deep prism servicing mechanized barges of up to 3000 tons. |
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