Within a decade of opening, the Erie Canal's great success required larger locks to handle the growing size and volume of vessels. Enlarged Lock 23, built in 1842 to replace original Lock 26, was a double-chamber lock known as "Alexander's Lock" that allowed boats to travel in both directions at the same time. As the first lock west of Schenectady, it became known as the "Gateway to the West" and at its busiest moved boats through every five minutes, about 47,000 lockages per season. Built entirely of large cut limestone blocks, it was a major transfer point where many passengers left to travel overland to Albany while freight continued through 22 locks to the Hudson River. New York State lengthened it again in 1889 for steam barges, but the opening of the larger Barge Canal in 1918 ended its service, and it was eventually replaced by Lock 8. After many sections of the original Erie Canal were abandoned, this section remained useful when General Electric purchased it and kept water running from its main plant until the mid-1950s, using the canal to test products including Electric Mules that pulled ships through the Panama Canal. It was later donated to the Town of Rotterdam, which ran a new water main through the lock chambers, and more recently Union College students cleaned up the area and built replicas of the Lock Tender's Hut and Wooden Pier.
