The Farmington Aqueduct

The Farmington Aqueduct. . , The Farmington Canal crossed various topographic features- rivers, hills, roads and woodlands. Boats traveling the length of the canal passed through 28 locks that compensated for changes in elevation. Perhaps the most impressive engineering feature of the canal was the Farmington Aqueduct, which carried canal boats across the Farmington River. , The Aqueduct contained a wooden trough 280 feet long, six feet deep and 14 feet wide, supported by two huge abutments at each end and six massive sandstone piers rising 40 feet from the solid rock of the river bed. A six foot wide wooden platform elevated along the top of the piers served as a towpath for the horses dragging the boats through the aqueduct’s waterway. Crossing the river on the Farmington Aqueduct so high in the air was a terrifying experience for both man and beast. , After the canal was abandoned in 1848, the aqueduct fell into disrepair and the wooden structure eventually collapsed into the river. In the 1880’s, two of the piers were dismantled and the stones reused in local building construction. The remaining four piers were destroyed in Connecticut’s 1955 flood. Today, the remains of the two abutments on either side of the river and the large stone base of one pier on the eastern riverbank are still visible.