Welcome To The Feeder Canal Historic Locks

Welcome To The Feeder Canal Historic Locks. . , Welcome to the Feeder Canal Historic Locks, The Glens Falls Feeder Canal was placed on the State and National Registers of Historical Places in 1985., The Five Combination Locks: , The original wooden locks on the Feeder Canal were replaced with hammer-dressed limestone locks by 1845. Stones for the 5 combines (locks 6-10) were delivered to the site by canal boat from Kingsbury quarries. Each lock, 100 feet long and 15 feet wide, lifted or lowered a canal boat about 11 feet. A total drop off of 55 feet. Lock tenders were on duty 24 hours a day to assist in operating the gates and locking boats through. It took 15 minutes to lock a boat through one lock, or 1 hour and 10 minutes to lock through this entire flight at the 5 combines., When canal boats lock through the first wooden locks on the canal, the flow of water to the Champlain Canal stopped each time the gates closed. This caused a shortage of water in the canal. The 1840's stone lock system, the present five combined structure, was designed with an adjacent sluice to feed water continuously around the locks., The first sluice at the five combines was an underground stone aqueduct which can be seen through the grill across the lock. It used the timber foundation of the original wooden combined locks as a base for the arched stone chambers. The sluice ran almost parallel to the locks., The underground aqueduct was 400' long with an 11' drop to a lower chamber every 100'. A fifth 100' section had breakers across it to slow the water as it returned to the surface at canal level. The underground sluice leaked so badly it had to be replaced in less than 20 years., The Feeder Canal Alliance would like to thank the NYS Canal Corporation and the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation for providing funding for this interpretative sign., The Feeder Canal Alliance, a volunteer organization founded in 1987, spearheads efforts to preserve, promote and protect the Feeder Canal Parks and Heritage Trail. For mare information contact us at (518) 792-5363.