Bridging the Irondequoit Valley was a major challenge for James Geddes, assistant engineer on the Erie Canal. In 1816, he planned an embankment almost a mile long and 70 feet high, built partly on natural ridges and partly artificially, but his engineers revised the location and the embankment was constructed downstream of Mann's Mills. They also built a culvert 245 feet long and 26 feet wide to carry the creek beneath the berm. Known as the Great Embankment, this enormous project required hundreds of laborers and was completed in 1822. By 1836, the canal was becoming obsolete because of heavy traffic and the need for larger canal boats. The Enlarged Erie Canal, completed in 1850 on top of Clinton's Ditch prism, was 3 feet deeper and 30 feet wider than the earlier canal and removed a bend west of the culvert that was too sharp for longer, newer barges. The final enlargement of the Erie Canal, the Erie Barge Canal, began in 1909 and required a straight embankment across the Irondequoit Valley so 2,000-ton barges could navigate the system. Completed and opened in 1912, it suffered a disastrous break a few months later that washed out the embankment and the 320-foot-long culvert. Temporary repairs sealed the break and commerce resumed, but fully rebuilding the structure took six years. Since then, one other break occurred in October 1974 because of human error, devastating Brook Hollow Street and parts of the neighborhood, causing tremendous damage but no fatalities.
