Lock 69 on the Erie Canal - Lockport, New York
N 43° 10.273 W 078° 41.570
17T E 687533 N 4782412
Lock 69 is the third lock in a flight of five located in the town of Lockport, New York. Today it no longer serves boats and is utilized strictly as a spillway.
Waymark Code: WMJEVJ
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 11/09/2013
Views: 4
In order to reach Lake Erie from the Hudson River, it was necessary for the Erie Canal to surmount the
Niagara Escarpment at Lockport. A competition for the design of canal locks over the escarpment was held and won by Nathan Roberts, a mathematics teacher and land speculator. Basically his design consisted of 5 pairs of locks so that one flight could be used for boats going up and the other flight used for boats going down, saving a significant amount of time and water consumption. The locks were constructed from 1817 to 1825. These locks were completely removed and replaced with a larger set of locks constructed from 1836 to 1862. Eventually the south flight of the replacement set (locks 79, 80, 81, 82 and 83) were demolished and replaced by the present pair of New York State Barge Canal locks (see Waymark
WMVG9) E-34 and E-35 constructed from 1909 to 1918. The north flight of replacement locks (locks
67,
68, 69,
70 and
71) remains and is used as a spillway. For an excellent in-depth history of these locks, see the Historic American Engineering Record,
“Erie Canal, Lockport Locks” prepared by Historian J. Lawrence Lee, Ph.D., P.E. in 2005.
The 364 miles of the Erie Canal went into full operation beginning in 1825; the canal is still in operation today. Details about the Erie Canal can be found at the web site listed below known as the
Erie Canal which contains a good summary of the canal's history, and a number of excellent links. Other sources of information are available at the
American Canal Society and the
Canal Society of New York.