Canal Zones 5b

Italy?  the Levant?  Upstate New York?

It is indeed.  Once this aqueduct was state-of-the-art infrastructure that carried the Erie Canal and its traffic over the Seneca River.

It remains extraordinarily beautiful, as captured in these photos by Bob Stopper.

Half of the arches were removed during construction of the Barge Canal, which sought to expand the size and utility of the system by incorporating lakes and rivers like the Seneca.

These horizontal piers once held boards that made up the “canal” bed;  sides of the canal were also planked, creating a trough through which canal waters flowed.

Beside the “trough,” this grassy path was trod by mules’ feet.

The Richmond or Motezuma aqueduct–shown above–was hardly the only aqueduct of that waterway of a century and a half ago.  Here’s one in Rexford and

another at Schoharie Creek.

The last two photos are mine;  all the Richmond aqueduct photos comes thanks to Bob Stopper.