Do you remember singing that song as a kid? We found out today that fifteen miles per day was the average distance covered by the mule-drawn barges in the heyday of the Canal. We went to Lockport, New York where we able to see a portion of the Canal that is still in active use by recreational boaters and also to see the man-made cave that was created to harness the water of the Canal for industrial use.
The locks at Lockport are Numbers 34 and 35. They lift boats almost 50 feet (49.1) through the Niagara Escarpment ridge of rock.
These are the newer green locks that were built in the early 1900s.
From the years 1909 to 1918, the Erie Canal was modified to become the New York State Barge Canal. The southern tier of the locks at Lockport were removed, and in their place was constructed a set of two electric lift locks. These concrete locks with steel gates were 310 feet x 45 feet x 12 feet, and had a combined lift of 49 feet.
After the gates were closed, we watched them fill the upper chamber with water --
Once filled to the level of the upper canal, the double gates at the other end were opened and the boats moved on through --
This flotilla of kayaks which had been waiting up under the bridge then came into the lock --
Then they held onto the side ropes as the water level fell and they could continue on their way --
After watching the locks fill and empty, we met Dan, who was to be our guide into the cave --
We walked down along the canal banks to the arch which showed where the original tunnel opening to the factories was located --
This is the "upside-down" railroad bridge across the Erie Canal at Lockport. The engineers decided that building the trestle support under the tracks would make it easier to anchor the bridge to the sides of the gorge. The locals were very suspicious of the railroads (which eventually did put the Canal out of business since they didn't have to close five months of the year due to ice) and thought that they were building the structure low over the Canal to restrict the heights of barge traffic.
These are the remains and ruins of one of the three factories that were run on hydropower from the waters of the Erie Canal. Ironically, this factory which made fire hydrants, was destroyed by a fire --
We entered the Lockport Cave through this tunnel entrance under the ruins of the last factory.
Our guide Dan explained that this was a 1600 foot water power tunnel blasted out of solid rock. The Hydraulic Tunnel provided water power to three industries. The tunnel was the invention of Birdsell Holly, a mechanical genius, whose inventions were manufactured using the water power provided by this tunnel. Holly's inventions include the life-saving fire hydrant, central steam heat and the rotary pump. During his lifetime, Holly held over 150 patents -- second only to Thomas Edison!
The tunnel we were walking along would have been filled with water to within a foot of the ceiling. The tunnel was bored by using a five foot star-tipped hand drill which was driven by sledge hammer to a depth of about 13-14 inches. The hole was then filled with black powder and a wick, lit by a young agile boy, who then ran as fast as possible away from the blast. Each blast only removed a section of rock about the size of a beach ball, so it was a very slow process.
The tunnel is only about 23 feet below the earth's surface. This is one of two ventilation shafts that were finally put in to attempt to supply fresh air to the workers.
We were loaded onto a small open boat for the last portion of the tunnel. Dan was nice enough to take this picture with my camera --
This is where we came out of the tunnel (the boat was run back to this opening from the dead end of the tunnel...) --
There was an ice cream shop across the street from where we climbed out of the gorge. They had some creative sidewalk chalk advertising!
Before we left, we went to take a look at the original small locks that were built in the early 1800s. The gates have been removed leaving a series of waterfalls.
The 60 foot rise in the Niagara Escarpment presented a major engineering problem during the construction of the original Erie Canal (1817-25). It was solved by Nathan S. Roberts, who designed a double set of five combined locks; one for ascending traffic heading west and another for descending traffic heading east. Each lock was 90 x 15 feet and had a lift of 12 feet.
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