Lock 18 of the Enlarged Erie Canal is located off North Mohawk Street in Cohoes, New York,

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. It is made of

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

blocks 3 by 2 by 1.5 feet (90 by 50 by 40 cm) in size, roughly in length, laid in a random ashlar pattern. The

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

's wooden gates are no longer extant. The lock was built as part of an 1837-1842 plan to make the canal bed larger, heading off competition from railroads, and allowing a detour around the section of

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

between Albany and

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

to the south, which had fewer locks and was difficult to navigate. Holmes Hutchinson, a canal

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who later became chief of that department and a

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of several railroads,

surveyed Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Two-dimensional space#In geometry, two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of ...

the route and drew up the plans for all locks in the mid-1830s. The canal was relocated slightly within the city of Cohoes; North Mohawk Street today parallels the original alignment, with sections of the original canal kept open to provide

water power Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a ...

to nearby

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complexes along the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

.Rossi, Louis; , retrieved September 9, 2008. Ten of the locks from the Enlarged Erie Canal remain within Cohoes., Spindle City Historic Society, Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway website, retrieved September 9, 2008. Lock 18 was individually listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

, added in 1970 in recognition of the high quality of its remaining stonework; the remainder of the locks on city-owned land were added to the National Register in 2004 as a non-contiguous historic district. A city-owned trail along the former

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...

allows visitors to see them. There is also a small parking lot along the street northeast of the lock with an interpretive sign.

References

External links

Pictures of Lock 18
at Tug44.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Lock 18 Of Enlarged Erie Canal Erie Canal parks, trails, and historic sites Locks on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Cohoes, New York Transportation buildings and structures in Albany County, New York Tourist attractions in Albany County, New York Transport infrastructure completed in 1842 National Register of Historic Places in Albany County, New York