{"nrhp_refnum":"71000529","name":"Watervliet Side Cut Locks","other_names":["West Troy Side Cut Locks"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"23rd St. at the Hudson River","address_restricted":false,"city":"Watervliet","county":"Albany County","state":"NY","lat":42.73188871000008,"lon":-73.69814928999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-08-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Engineering","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A pair of cut-limestone canal locks and a curved stone sea wall at the Hudson River end of the Erie Canal's West Troy 'side cut', at Twenty-third Street in Watervliet, Albany County, New York.","why_significant":"The locks were the Hudson River entrance to the Erie Canal's lateral 'side cut', built so Troy commerce and west-bound freight could reach the canal without going through Albany. The double locks and sea wall are what remain of the side cut, and the nomination presents them as a monument to 19th-century engineering and transportation advances.","narrative":"Double canal locks of cut limestone and a curved stone sea wall survive at Twenty-third Street, where the Hudson River meets the old West Troy 'side cut' of the Erie Canal. The side cut was built because Troy businesses objected to a plan that ended the canal's eastern stretch in Albany. It gave Troy commerce and west-bound freight a second entrance to the canal from the Hudson. A weigh lock stood at the canal end, and a lock at the river end served as the Hudson entrance. Appropriations in 1835 widened the side cut and doubled the locks at its western end, completed by 1850. In 1864 $75,000 was appropriated for a double lock at the eastern end, and a new lock was placed beside the original by the early 1870s. The wooden gates are gone, but recesses in the walls show where they stood. The State Basin has been filled in and the side cut has nearly vanished, leaving these locks as evidence of 19th-century canal engineering.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked as ruins; the wooden gates are gone. The locks and sea wall were recently spared from demolition and were to be covered with clean fill to protect them for possible future development.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.014079-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/71000529.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000529/b4077721fb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000529/b4077721fb-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr from Upstate New York","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Watervliet_Side_Cut_Locks_Mar_10.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr from Upstate New York</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Watervliet_Side_Cut_Locks_Mar_10.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75316381","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watervliet_Side_Cut_Locks","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14707724"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/albany-county/watervliet-side-cut-locks-71000529/"}