Erie Canal Lock #62 near Pittsford, NY

(Satellite)

Erie Canal Overview

The Great Embankment is about a mile east of here.

"The lift was 9.22 feet to the west." [ErieCanal]

Looking at the downstream side. In the center is the wall that expanded the south lock on the left to speed up the transit of 250-ton grain barges.

Thomas Griebel, Sep 2018

Thomas likes this view. I include this photo that was taken three years later because it is easier to see the outlet of a conduit in the central divider. And it shows how nature has progressed and the appearance of graffiti on the end of the wall.

Thomas Griebel, Sep 2021

A close up of the outlet.

ErieCanal

This is the upstream side. Note the three inlets to the conduit in the central divider. There was a flow in the canal to supply water to operate the locks. If the locks were not being used much, the water level in the canal would rise. When the water level reached the inlets, the excess water would overflow into the conduit and continue downstream.

Adam Rothman, Sep 2017

Back in 2017, they cleaned nature off the south lock. But the above photo shows that the north lock still had a lot of growth in it.

Debi Bower, Apr 2017

I think we are looking downstream in the north chamber.

mine big gut, Jun 2019

Unfortunately, preservation is now plagued by graffiti as well as nature.

Jules Hoepting, May 2025

Being treated as a garbage dump is not a new problem. Each winter when they drained the canal, they had to clean a lot of trash out of the prism.

Chris Hecht, Aug 2020

Back in 2008, the south chamber looked real good. The person gives an idea of the size of the lock.

ErieCanal

The pin shows where the Erie Canal turned north to go through Rochester, but the Barge Canal continued going West. Lock #62 is in the top center under the "Barnes & Noble" label whereas Barge Canal Lock #32 is at the bottom.

Satellite

Robert Corby posted

ERIE CANAL LOCK 62

The well preserved remains of this paired lock are located at the crest of the berm borderng the west side of the Pittsford Wegmans parking lot.  

In the photo below, the small catwalk above the lock gates allowed the lock tender to move quickly back and forth across the lock chamber.  Also visible are the large timber balance beams that provided leverage to allow manual operation of the lock gates.  The turbulent state of the water indicates the lock chamber was being drained at the time of the photo.

Robert Corby shared

Dean Cady: Well doctored photo

Robert Corby: Dean Cady ?

[I deleted this comment because I realized that we are looking at the longer south chamber and the right chamber would not be visible.]

Dennis DeBruler: Robert Corby Judging from the angle of the gates and the flow of water, we are looking at the downstream side of the chamber. If we are looking at the south chamber, the photo is from the 19th Century before the south locks were doubled in size and there should be a north chamber on the right side. If we are looking at the north chamber, there should not be any land on the left side, but there should be land on the right side.