Along its route from Albany to Buffalo, the Erie Canal crossed many rivers and streams. Engineers kept these waters from flowing into the canal by building aqueducts to carry the canal above larger streams and culverts to divert smaller streams below it. Three historic culverts at Schoharie Crossing were built in the 1840s, and two are still operational. Culvert 43, or Putman's Culvert, and Culvert 44, or Emery's Culvert, are both submerged by the Mohawk River when the Barge Canal is in operation. Culvert 45, or Voorhees' Culvert, just below Lock 29, was the only iron culvert on the Enlarged Erie Canal east of Utica; before it collapsed, it was a 156-foot-long by 4-foot-round pipe.
