Enlarged Lock 23

Lock 23, about 3000 feet from modern Lock 8, was built in 1841 during the enlargement of the Erie Canal from 1836 to 1862 and replaced original Erie Canal Lock 26. Enlargement 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 to accommodate larger and heavier barges. Single-chambered locks were replaced by double-chambered locks, allowing barges to pass in 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. In 1918, Lock 23 was replaced by Lock 8 of the modern Erie Canal, which used the early 20th century's technology of electrified locks, steel lock gates, and a 12-foot-deep prism serving mechanized barges of up to 3000 tons.

Rotterdam, New York · United States