Lockport Locks
The Erie Canal’s flight of locks up the Niagara Escarpment at Lockport, New York. The Erie Canal article shows how the locks created the town.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erie Canal | wikipedia.org | turning point | In 1823 the canal reached the 80-foot dolomitic limestone wall of the Niagara Escarpment. |
| Wedding of the Waters - The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation | Peter L. Bernstein | subject | Nathan Roberts’s double flight of five locks climbs the Niagara escarpment; a seven-mile Deep Cut follows. |
Erie Canal — wikipedia.org (2001)
Source: Original · Readwise highlight
The route followed the channel of a creek that had cut a ravine steeply down the escarpment. The construction and operation of two sets of five locks along a 3-mile (4.8 km) corridor soon gave rise to the community of
- Role: turning point
- In the article: In 1823 the canal reached the 80-foot dolomitic limestone wall of the Niagara Escarpment. Builders followed a ravine and built two sets of five locks (60 feet total lift) along a 3-mile corridor, which gave rise to the community of Lockport. The final leg was blasted through the Onondaga ridge, sometimes sending rocks onto nearby homes.
- Why it matters: The steepest climb of the route, which created the town of Lockport.
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
Soon to be appropriately named Lockport, the town had increased to 337 families by January 1823, when the contracts had been let and the first digging had begun.
- Role: subject
- In the book: The canal’s hardest feature is the climb up the Niagara escarpment, where Nathan Roberts designs two side-by-side flights of five twelve-foot locks, followed by a seven-mile Deep Cut through solid rock to Pendleton. The town grows from three families to 337 by 1823 on Irish labour; Frances Trollope calls it hideous, and the work is finished in June 1825 with Masonic ceremonies.
- Why it matters: Lockport is the last great obstacle before Lake Erie and the canal’s most spectacular engineering.