Industrial History: Locks #21 & #22 on Barge Canal and Bridges near New London, NY

#21: (Satellite)

#22: (Satellite)

Lost Erie (Original) Canal Bridge: (Satellite)

Closed Iron Bridge: (Satellite)

Erie Canal overview

nycanalmap

Cori Willson posted four photos with the comment: "Boy Scouts passed through locks E-22 & E-21 a few days ago on their way to Bellamy Harbor in Rome. All involved were rather enjoying it, 7 canoes for a lockage is a personal best 🙂"

Cori Willson posted four photos with the comment: "These two gentlemen are from Kentucky and started their end to end trip down the Erie Canal in Tonawanda. They passed through lock 21 today, one of them turned 72 yesterday! This trip has been very memorable for them, meeting the people along the way was the answer when asked what's has been their favorite part. People along the canal have helped them out along the way, offering rides to grocery stores and one even offered to lend them their vehicle to gather supplies in Fairport! The most memorable so far has been the two days crossing Oneida Lake."

18 photos of the Seneca Chief going through lock #22

2 of the 9 images posted by Cori Willson with the comment:

NEW LONDON
Ambrose Jones is listed as erecting the first
frame house on the site of the present
village, called the Eagle Hotel. He
was instrumental in having the post office
opened in 1825, naming the new settlement after his hometown, New London- Connecticut.
The first industries used the raw materials
at hand, lumber and fuel wood. The virgin
forest trees grew to 30 feet in diameter.
Lumber was shipped out by the millions of
board feet. Five boat building yards hummed with one of the largest industries in the
state. The story circulated that New Londoners built their boats each a mile long
then sawed them into barge-length sections
and boarded up the ends, thereby turning
out an "instant fleet".
New London, incorporated in 1848
was a commercial center at that time of 800
permanent residents; three hotels cared for
the hundreds more transients passing
through on their way westward. Cheese
from three cheese factories, grain, vegetables, and in spring arbutus flowers for perfumers were shipped to New York City.
The westbound barges unloaded sugar and
manufactured goods at New London to go
By wagon train northward to the settlements of Jefferson and Oswego counties.
The opening of the Black River Canal and the new network of railroads drained commerce from the Erie. The industrialization of nearby Rome and Utica drew families to those towns. A serious fire in 1856, another in December 1900, and again nine years later, wiped out the docks and warehouses, hotels, stores, and gracious classic mansions, never to be rebuilt. The wild rough days of the canallers have become part of Central New York folklore.
The New London of today, straddling the old Erie Canal at the junction of state routes 46 and 49. is entirely residential. A dozen homes of the early canal period remain, clustered around the United Methodist Church, Masonic Lodge, and firehouse. Only the church keeps its original identity. Life in the 20s and 30s centered around a Dramatic Society, Merry Makers Orchestra, Lodge and Eastern Star meetings, sleigh rides, and Saturday night dances at Grosjeans Hall. The canal was still a factor, with accidents and drownings. The 1937 great freeze caught barges end to end from New London to Lock 21.
In August 1947 a charter was oranted the New London Volunteer Fire Department. A 1931 Chevrolet truck was purchased, on which was mounted a U. S. Government- loaned 500 gallon skid-type pumper, two ladders, and 600 feet of hose. The rig was kept in a former bicycle shop, and later in nearby barns. In 1949, when the weight of the equipment dropped the truck through the barn floor, the campaign to raise funds for a firehouse was accelerated. In 1950 the first firehouse was built on the corner of Main and Cornell Streets.
In 1966 and 1967 there was much talk of the Erie Canal Park, with recreational development at its extremes of New London and DeWitt. The Canal Park is on the record, but is as yet one of the many undeveloped areas belonging to the New York State Park System.
-Edith Pangburn, Historian
The History of Oneida County, 1977