Erie Canal

Nice sign.  At least we didn't have a repeat of the
 Morehead City, NC "incident" (May 30).

The Erie Canal is one of the longest of the great American canals built in the 19th Century. The Erie Canal extends 363 miles, from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, at Buffalo. The idea was to get goods back and forth from the Great Lakes to New York City (via the Hudson River, which connected NYC and the Atlantic Ocean to the Erie Canal). Construction of the canal began July 4, 1817 in Rome, NY and  was completed 1825.
There were over a million dollars in tolls collected before it was completed and it fully paid for itself within 10 years.  The men who constructed the canal used their bare hands, picks, plows pulled by mules and horses, and shovels.  In 1905 the song “Low Bridge, Everybody Down ” was published by Tin Pan Alley songwriter Thomas Allen about the Erie Canal (here is the link to the Bruce Springsteen version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roqhd3yG3Qk).

The canal originally contained 83 locks (including the Oswego Canal).  Today it has 57 locks raising or lowering boats anywhere from 7 to 34 feet.  We will go through 34 of them.  The Canal rises 566 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. From tide-water level at Troy, the Erie Canal rises through a series of locks in the Mohawk Valley to an elevation of 420 feet above sea-level at the summit level at Rome. Continuing westward, it descends to an elevation of 363 feet above sea-level at the junction with the Oswego Canal, and finally rises to an elevation of 565.6 feet above sea-level at the Niagara River at Buffalo.

At the start of the Erie Canal at Waterford, NY and begins with the famous flight of 5 locks. Each of these locks raise (or lowers) boats about 30 feet.  They are the standard stile lock with doors that open on each end.  Both doors close and the chamber begins to fill (or empty).  This is done through a set of pipes and valves that fill (or empty) from the bottom of the chamber. No they don't open the doors and just let the boats flow out with the water.

The locks in the Erie Canal have three methods of helping operators keep their boats steady as they go up the wall, pipes, cables, and ropes.  The pipes and cables are attached at the top and the bottom, the ropes are attached at the top (Gary holding onto a rope in the picture below).

Lock 17 eastern door.

 Lock 17 is quite an impressive lock.  The lock door on the eastern side is lifted up so the boat passes under the door.  It is thought to be one of two such locks in North America.  It lifts the boat 40'.  We recorded a time lapse video of us locking through this lock.

We also recorded a time lapse video of Lock 15.

Gary working hard to keep the mast clear from the wall

I think we are getting better at locking through. The first couple we worked hard to keep the boat close to the wall using the pipes or cable. The turbulence is pretty strong when the valves are opened to start filling the lock.  We found that using the ropes and just just a gentle nudge here and there is less wearing on us and the boat floats up nicely. It is so nice to have someone along to help with the locking process. I just hope I am not working him to hard.


Lessons Learned:
Don't fight the lock turbulence, just try to manage it the best you can.



Don't forget to check out the map of Lesson Plan's progress.  There is a picture associated with each mark on the map. I try to remember to take a picture every hour, but sometime I have to invoke the use artistic freedom and use a picture that is close to the mark.

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