Locks

Locks (HM2N4L)

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N 41° 37.982', W 74° 27.123'

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Delaware & Hudson Canal

The canal ran downhill from Honesdale to Port Jerivis, then uphill to Summitville, New York, then sloped down until it reached the Hudson River at Rondout Harbor (Kingston), an elevation change of about 972-feet over all. Along the way, 108 locks equalized the water level so that the boats could move smoothly along. These simple but clever devices, which originally required two operators, or tenders, "locked" the boats into a water-filled chamber made of stone, sometimes lined with wood. According to canal folklore, a boat fit into a lock like a hand in a glove. Gates let water in to raise the boat up to level, or released water to lower the boat to level, depending which way it was heading. The average elevation per lock was ten feet, and each lock-through, which took about twenty minutes, used approximately 50,000 to 100,000 gallons of water. Initially the locks measured nine ½ feet wide and seventy five feet long; but in 1852, to accommodate larger boats, they were enlarged to fifteen feet wide and ninety feet long. In an early example of technology displacing people, changes to the locking system in 1865 so improved the process that it made lock-tending a one-man operation, putting the second tender out of work.
Besides operating the lock, tenders were responsible for maintaining the water level below the lock; the



water level above the lock was the job of the tender up the line. Most lock tenders lived in little company-owned houses perched right on the canal banks and often also did some farming or ran grocery stores or taverns for boatmen and their families. Locks typically operated from sun-up to sundown. In busy periods locks stayed open until 10 in the evening, all night if a freeze threatened; but were closed, as was the entire canal, on Sundays.
Details
HM NumberHM2N4L
Tags
Placed ByDelaware & Hudson Canal Linear Park
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Friday, November 22nd, 2019 at 10:01pm PST -08:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)18T E 545639 N 4609178
Decimal Degrees41.63303333, -74.45205000
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 41° 37.982', W 74° 27.123'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds41° 37' 58.92" N, 74° 27' 7.3800000000001" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Which side of the road?Marker is on the right when traveling West
Closest Postal AddressAt or near , ,
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Nearby Markersshow on map
Waste Weirs
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Canal Basin & Sluiceway
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Lock No. 50
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Ending at Rondout
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Dry Docks
0.04 miles
Demise of the Canal
0.05 miles
Towpath
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History of the Canal
0.1 miles
The Canal & the Railroad
0.93 miles
O&W & Summitville Station
0.94 miles
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