Great Embankment (Irondequoit Creek)
Raised section of the Erie Canal over the Irondequoit Creek valley near Pittsford, New York. The Erie Canal article treats it as one of the route’s great engineering problems.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erie Canal | wikipedia.org | journey waypoint | Crossing the Irondequoit Creek valley before Rochester was one of the canal’s major engineering difficulties. |
| Wedding of the Waters - The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation | Peter L. Bernstein | turning point | Geddes cries ‘Eureka’ at the valley in 1808; the embankment is built through quicksand by 1822. |
Erie Canal — wikipedia.org (2001)
Source: Original · Readwise highlight
The former ultimately required building the 1,320-foot (400 m) long “Great Embankment,” to carry the canal at a height of 76 feet (23 m) above the level of the creek, which ran through a 245-foot (75 m) culvert underneath.
- Role: journey waypoint
- In the article: Crossing the Irondequoit Creek valley before Rochester was one of the canal’s major engineering difficulties. The builders raised a 1,320-foot embankment 76 feet above the creek, which flowed through a culvert beneath it.
- Why it matters: A signature engineering obstacle and solution along the route.
Wedding of the Waters - The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation — Peter L. Bernstein (2005)
Source: Wedding of the Waters - The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation · Original · Readwise highlight
Trekking over snowy hills, Geddes came to an area known by the romantic Indian name of the Irondequoit Valley, just to the east of the town of Rochester.
- Role: turning point
- In the book: On his 1808 survey James Geddes finds that the Genesee stands above the heights of the Irondequoit Valley east of Rochester, so an embankment could carry the canal across; he cries ‘Eureka!’. Engineers later return to his idea, filling the valley over a stone culvert and nine hundred log pilings through quicksand; up to three thousand Irish workers finish it in October 1822 and it becomes a sight for tourists.
- Why it matters: It solved one of the route’s hardest crossings and proved Geddes’s survey right.