Gribblenation

Our overall transportation system is full of engineering marvels. This is especially true for our historic canals. The Peterborough Lift Lock is also known as Lock 21 of the 240-mile-long (386 kilometers) Trent-Severn Waterway, near Peterborough Ontario, Canada, which connects the Georgian Bay at Port Severn. the Kawartha Lakes region and Lake Ontario at Trenton. It is located along the Otonabee River and is the Peterborough Lift Lock National Historic Site. At 65 feet in height or 19.8 meters, it was the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world when it opened in 1904. In fact, the second-highest hydraulic lift lock is also located along the Trent-Severn Waterway, at Lock 36 in  Kirkfield, Ontario . Construction on the Peterborough Lift Lock took place from 1896 through 1904, using mostly local labor to build the unique lock. The Peterborough Lift Lock was declared a national historic site in 1979. During the late 19th Century, Superintending Engineer Richard Birdsall Rogers (R.B. ...

  A canal linking Philadelphia with the Susquehanna River across southern Pennsylvania had been in the making for quite some time. This eventually gave birth to the Union Canal, which was built between Middletown, located along the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, with Reading on the Schuylkill River, which winds its way to Philadelphia. During the canal's construction, several land features had to be dealt with, and in the case of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, it was more practical to build a tunnel through a hill than to build a series of locks. This gave birth to the Union Canal Tunnel. The Union Canal Tunnel was a critical link connecting the eastern and western branches of the 82-mile Union Canal, which was built through the ridge dividing the Quittapahilla Creek and Clark's Run just northwest of the center city of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest existing tunnel in the United States, dug through 729 feet of slate rock which contained veins of limestone. Drilling for the...

  Little Falls, New York is a small city in the Mohawk Valley that has been shaped by the forces of water throughout its history. Nowhere in Little Falls is that more evident than at Moss Island. Representing the Industrial Age, this is home of Lock 17 the tallest lock along the Erie Canal, but there is also evidence of the Ice Age in the form of 40 foot deep glacial potholes from when there was an ancient waterfall that was even larger than Niagara Falls at this spot, once draining Glacial Lake Iroquois when other outlets (such as the St. Lawrence River) were blocked by retreating glaciers. While Little Falls does not have the amount of industry around the river and canal than it once had, checking out what Moss Island has to offer is a great way to see what the city has to offer. Visiting Moss Island allows you to experience the engineering marvel that is the Erie Canal plus the wonders of nature by taking a hike around the island and seeing the glacial pothole...

The Palmyra-Macedon Aqueduct Park, or the Pal-Mac Aqueduct Park for short, is a county park just west of historic Palmyra, New York that features remnants from the days of yore of the heyday of the Erie Canal. The main features of the park is a spillway that is still used to moderate the nearby successor to the Erie Canal, that being the Barge Canal, as well as the Mud Creek Aqueduct and the historic Aldrich Change Bridge. The Erie Canalway Trail runs through the park, and along with the historical and recreational opportunities afforded within the boundaries of the park, there is a pavilion on site for people to have picnics. The historic Aldrich Change Bridge (officially, the Aldrich Towing Path Change Bridge) is the oldest iron bridge in New York State and one of only two bridges known to survive from the first enlargement of the Erie Canal. The bridge was first constructed in 1858. This Whipple designed bridge was built in the Waterford, New York iron works of Geo...

 Even though the Erie Canal has been modernized and has followed some slightly different alignments over the past 200 years, there are many old remnants, locks and aqueducts of the Erie Canal that are yours to discover and explore across the Empire State. The canals in New York State are definitely an important part of this state's rich history, so it's nice that vestiges of the Erie Canal can still be seen. Some of the old remnants are sitting quietly in the wild or alongside roads while others are preserved as part of various parks and historical sites. There's even a rest area on the New York Thruway in Port Byron that doubles as the Port Byron Old Erie Canal Heritage Park . Not far from Port Byron, in Montezuma, is another one of these relics from a bygone era of the Erie Canal. This area is preserved for public use as the Montezuma Heritage Park . There is quite a bit of history to explore at the Montezuma Heritage Park. The park has some walking trai...