Champlain Canal

The old Champlain Canal is a stretch of abandoned waterway of roughly 76 to 80 miles in Saratoga and Washington Counties, New York, running from Troy and Waterford north to Whitehall. Opened in 1823, it joined Lake Champlain with the Hudson, the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal. It used locks, aqueducts and culverts, and followed stretches of Wood Creek and the Hudson. The canal turned small hamlets into trade and industry centers, with mills and warehouses appearing along its banks. It carried timber, iron, marble and farm goods from New York, Vermont and Canada, and provided work for immigrants, especially Irish laborers. Building it also served as an early school of engineering. By 1856 it was the most productive canal in the state system. Rerouting under the Barge Canal in 1903 left the old route abandoned. Parts survive, including locks at Waterford and masonry in good condition, while other sections have been lost to dumping or later construction.