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Satellite)
Erie Canal Overview
This lock replaced Lock #26 on the original Erie Canal.
Barge Canal Lock #8 is about a half-mile upstream from here.
Paul Fishman posted three photos with the comment: "
Lock 23 of the Enlarged Erie Canal. The lock was built in 1841 and used until 1918. Rotterdam, Schenectady County. 11/26" |
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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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hmdb, Apr 5, 2016, photo by Howard C. Ohlhous
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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hmdb, Apr 5, 2016, photo by Howard C. Ohlhous
The Enlarged Lock 23 Marker stands beside the Mohawk Hudson Bike-Hike Trail, and just beyond is the remains of Lock 23. Between 2000 and 2003 students and staff of the Department of Civil Engineering at Union College in Schenectady, working with the Town of Rotterdam, built the replica board-and-batten Lock Tender's Hut and a Wooden Pier at Lock 23. |
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hmdb, Apr 5, 2016, photo by Howard C. Ohlhous
View of the west lock chamber, looking south. |
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hmdb, Feb 17, 2007, photo by Howard C. Ohlhous
View of the east lock chamber, looking north. |
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ErieCanal via hmdb
The inset image on the marker is an engineering drawing for a double lock pier. The pier is essentially a wooden crib filled with loose stone, designed to protect the upper end of the lock from damage that might be caused as a result of being stuck by a loaded canal boat. The opening in the pier that appears similar to a "window", seen on the right of the pier in the drawing, is intended to allow water to pass through as a means of regulating and maintaining the water level in the canal above the lock. The tapered shape of the pier helped to guide and funnel canal boats into the lock. |
The top of the wooden pier is on the left, and the tender's hut is on the right.
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