The Canalway Trail: Mindenville

The Canalway Trail: Mindenville. . , Welcome to the Canalway Trail System, offering hundreds of miles of scenic trails and numerous parks for walking, bicycling, cross country skiing and other recreational activities. The Canalway Trail parallels the New York State Canal System, comprised of four historic waterways: the Erie, the Champlain, the Oswego and the Cayuga-Seneca Canals. The Canal System spans 524 miles across New York State, linking the Hudson River with the Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes, the Niagara River and Lake Erie., Cooperative initiatives between the New York State Canal Corporation, volunteers, local governments, and federal and state agencies have created this great network of trails for public use. When completed, the Canalway Trail will span over 500 miles connecting numerous cities, towns and villages along the Canal System, making it one of the most extensive trail networks in the country., Enjoying the Canalway Trail: Safety Tips , The Canalway Trail is intended to accommodate a variety of users. It is important to extend courtesy to all trail users and respect their rights. In order to avoid conflicts, trail protocol dictates that bicyclists should yield the right-of-way to all trail users and walkers should yield to equestrians. In addition, please observe the following tips for safe trail use: Rules not transcribed, Constructing Lock 16. This site was one of many. Early in the 20th century, all across the state, workers built a chain of new locks that linked four of New York's existing canals into a single network totaling 524 miles., Each of the canal's 57 new locks, like the one built here in 1907-08, measured nearly 45 feet wide and over 300 feet long. Built with concrete rather than the cut stone of an earlier era, each lock required electrically operated steel gates that could weigh over 20 tons., When completed in 1918, the Erie Barge Canal cost $155 million. Grain, pulpwood and coal, apples, onions and potatoes, oil, bricks and even automobiles rode to market in the larger barges that could now float through the canal's locks., [photos:] , Excavation and construction of Lock 16 at Mindenville occurred between 1907 and 1908. The photos at the right were taken at different times during that construction. , Watching For Weakness , Since it is an artificial river, the Eric Canal rebelled on occasion, by breaking through the barriers imposed by humans. In April 1878, for example, muskrats weakened the towpath and 510 feet of earth washed away causing $53,000 worth of damage, prompting workers to riot, and encouraging politicians to level charges of graft. To spot weaknesses in channel embankments, like the one that led to the 1878 washout, the canal's commissioners employed bankwatchers to regularly walk the canal towpath. Even today, bankwatchers, in the Western part of the state, walk roughly seven miles each day looking for leaks before they burst into muddy torrents that might paralyze traffic for days., [photos:] , Mindenville Plan A plan of the businesses and residences along the canal at Mindenville, mid-19th century., A break and washout flooded the area near Carter’s Basin, May 17, 1916., Modernization. ”The canal must be enlarged!" , New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt, 1900., The Eric Canal kept changing. Completed in 1825, the canal has been enlarged again and again. With the introduction of self-propelled boats in the 20th century, it even changed its path to take advantage of New York's many inland lakes and rivers., The lock that you see today, part of the Erie Barge Canal, is evidence of the changes that kept the canal operating. Approved in 1903 and completed 15 years later, this modernized canal accommodated barges carrying 3,000 tons of cargo, 100 times more than the capacity of a canal boat from the 1820s., An impressive engineering accomplishment conceived in an age of national expansion, the barge canal is ten times longer than the Panama Canal. , Controversial Concrete , In the early 20th century, when the state approved millions to enlarge the Eric Canal, concrete was still a controversial building material. Stonecutters and masons lined up in opposition to the use of concrete for canal construction. Some argued that concrete could never withstand the harsh winter weather of upstate New York., Before deciding, the state sent an engineer to examine concrete structures already complete. He consulted experts familiar with concrete. Accountants tallied the cost and reported that stone structures would cost 16 million additional dollars., The state chose concrete., [photos:] , Enlarged Lock 32 in Fort Plain., Concrete mixer with swinging delivery pipes, ca. 1916, Massive amounts of high strength concrete was used to construct the Medina Aqueduct in 1913.