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Quick post today, almost on time. I’m resting up after travels, reunions, summits, setbacks, ravines, tech glitches that turned out to be excessive cookie of the electromagnetic sort, and . . . more.
I took all these Lyons, NY photos in the past few weeks, although I missed all the excitement of the sixth boro, including a few CMA CGM boats . . . Magellan this morning. If any of you got photos, please get in touch.
Tug Syracuse may be looking for a captain. Contact me if you’re looking for a tugboat.
More on all this soon.
Happy to be back . . . WVD.
Empire Line . . . is that a rail service? A fashion design?
You’ve seen Erie Canal posts on this blog many, many times. Erie Canal. I grew up near that canal and have played and worked on it in different capacities. Last fall, I biked along the canal from Tonawanda to Waterford, and because of the isolation of the past year, posted virtual bike and boat tour guides. People from many countries have transited the Erie Canal; people from even more countries know of this iconic waterway. A friend told of visiting a classroom in China and seeing a map there that showed the Erie Canal.
Well, the governor has proposed renaming the corridor for boats and bikes through New York as . . . the Empire Line. What!@#$#@@! Here’s the paragraph: “Reimagine the Erie Canal: Building on the findings of the Reimagine the Canal Task Force, the New York Power Authority Board, which now oversees the Canal Corporation as a subsidiary, will … integrate the Empire State Trail and Erie Canal into a new “Empire Line” system … along the 360-mile spine of the Erie Canal.”
Check out tug Syracuse below.
Should that be renamed tug Empire #1933?
Or take Joncaire aka Daniel Joncaire.…
Should it be called Empire 1979?
Rename Niagara Falls . . . Empire Falls? For NYS to suggest renaming the iconic Erie Canal is a worse idea than gilding a lily or painting the abalone…. Write your NYS assembly rep. Write your NYS senator. Let them know how you feel.
These photos come compliments of a canal sailor. The sentiments are entirely my own.
How we got here from Montezuma can be seen here on a map from the DEC. Sorry, but I have no pics of Cross Lake, boyhood home area of Hiawatha, but not H. W. Longfellow’s version.
Lock E-24, the only lock we transit in this last leg of the trip, is the pride and joy of Baldwinsville. In the photo below, the Budweiser sign middle top is near Bud Light Amphitheater on Paper Mill Island. For the source of the photo and the story below, click anywhere on the photo. Baldwinsville is a village in the towns* of Van Buren and Lysander, one of the locations within the Central NY Military Tract, areas of land used to compensate soldiers who’d served in the Revolution. Thanks to a Robert Harpur, a classics-trained clerk in the Surveyor’s General’s office, these locations to this day carry “weighty” names, fairly common in NYS in general. Imagine growing up in Carthage, Corinth, or Ithaca NY. More on Lysander, the town and not the Spartan admiral, here.
*The boundary lines for towns, villages, and hamlets are confusing.
A short distance out of town is this rail bridge. By its location, I’d say it dates from the Syracuse, Lakeside, and Baldwinsville RR, then later the Syracuse, Lakeshore and Northern, but that discontinued service in 1931. Has it been used since?
The Seneca River, flowing through the NW outskirts of Syracuse, is heavily settled. You will see a lot of boats, some with only a past and
others with a buoyant future.
Again, many people crossing bridges, like this one E-73 marked at NY 370 Cold Springs, might have no idea what waters and what artwork can be found beneath.
This Sears Oil terminal (not associated with the Richard Sears of the department store) I think has been torn down, but someone needs to confirm that. The structural dolphins along the left bank are again vestiges of the use of the Canal for distribution of essential materials.
Limitations to the principle that “you are responsible for your wake” were illustrated here. You slow down if you see someone fishing or canoeing or docked boats. See the ducks? Sure, but you don’t slow down for them.
See the hunters above? We didn’t at first because of their camouflage. Yup . . . they got waked. You won’t slow down if camouflage succeeds.
Later, we saw another group of hunters, less well camouflaged and our watch tuned to the possibility that stealthy hunters were present, and they were not waked.
Ditto my comment of earlier about bridges from above and from below. This is the Route 31 bridge in Belgium NY, a hamlet in the town of Clay.
We pass part of the Docks by Dom fleet.
The Erie Canal, looking west, goes back to the right. The waterway to the left in the Onondaga Lake Outlet, connecting the Canal to Onondaga Lake and Syracuse, where the Inner Harbor once had a Syracuse Terminal with boat-building facilities. In fact, the tug Syracuse (seen at the beginning of this post) and the tug Reliable (now a reef near Long Island) were built there.
In 1919 a Greenport NY-built, US Navy vessel, Submarine Chaser 245, which had served in the Atlantic, Med, and Adriatic was making a victory tour of US coastal and inner coastal cities. After stopping in Plattsburgh, Schenectady and Rome, plans were made for a stop in Syracuse. At the time Plattsburgh had a population of 11k, Schenectady … about 90k, and Rome … 25k. Syracuse had 170k. All was great until SC-245 passed through the Outlet (above) into Onondaga Lake, crew were overwhelmed by the stench of sewage, etc, and beat a hasty retreat all the way to Buffalo. Battle, as attested by the three “kill” stars on the SC’s stack, had not caused these vets to flee; pollution, however, did. Can you imagine the stories these vets told the rest of their lives, crossing the Atlantic, fighting the Austrians, overcoming all adversity, only to be defeated by Syracuse Inner Harbor miasma?
This was not the last or first time sub chasers appeared in the Barge Canal. SC 330 and presumably her sister ships (I can’t confirm this.) in the distance were built by Burger Boat in Manitowoc WI. Here they head for a sixth boro-commissioning and then for sea via the Barge Canal. I’m not sure where in the canal this photo was taken, or what publication it appeared in. I found it on FB a few months ago. Maybe someone can help. I’ve also long searched for a WW1 or WW2 photo showing war materiel passing through the canal, e.g., tanks on barges, other naval vessels, etc. Anyone have photos?
Here’s evidence they passed: Section 8 page 51 of this application document addressed to the US Dept of Interior, National Park Service: “During World War II New York’s Barge Canal allowed Great Lakes shipyards to build and deliver landing craft,tugboats, PT boats, sub chasers, mine sweepers, and other naval vessels – 414 military vessels passed through the canal in 1942 alone. Canal dredges, derrick boats, and tugs worked on construction of Samson Naval Training Station on Seneca Lake and others were assigned to New York Harbor.”
I posted from Syracuse back in 2013, when Honeywell was making a concerted dredging effort to clean up Onondaga Lake, which had been fouled by the salt industry. Why Honeywell? Read here. A 2009 scientific article on the degradation of the lake, which some considered the most polluted lake in the US, can be read here. Honeywell has recently sued ExxonMobil and Buckeye to recoup some of their expenses, but I don’t know the outcome of those actions.
A good read on the the lake going from a spa and fishery to toxic abasement and beginning to come back can be read here. Here’s another on the lake’s lost resorts.
Here‘s an article about the report and follow-up plan. The Onondaga Nation finds the extent of the cleanup inadequate. Here‘s more on the Ononodaga.
Notice this stately 1875 Syracuse Savings Bank building, now clearly leased by Bank of America. The left side of the building front Erie Boulevard, which prior to 1918 was the Erie Canal.
The bank is now on the left extreme of the photo.
Ditto here. More on Syracuse industry here.
As you might have suspected from other boom-to-bust towns and cities along the canal, Syracuse population today is around 140k, compared with its high of 220k in 1950.
But we’re heading for our rendezvous point, and we have a bit farther to reach it. That and a whole lot of reflection . . . tomorrow.
Yesterday we ended at a junction in the canal near red number 4 on the map below, Montezuma NY. Today we start about 50 miles mostly south at the southern end of Seneca Lake, at the town of Watkins Glen, at the balloon and red number 1. This map clearly shows the Finger Lakes area. The names of the lakes reflect the Haudenosaunee heritage, as this was once part of their homeland. The numbers show the route we will follow back to Three Rivers. We could have started at the X in Ithaca to get to the Erie Canal, but then we would miss the four locks on the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. In the 19th century, the Chemung Canal headed south from Watkins Glen, and by 1858, it connected to waterways in Pennsylvania, allowing for transportation of coal into the Erie Canal. By 1878, however, all traffic ceased, and coal was transported by rail. Only recently has a systematic survey of sunken canal boats and other vessels on the lake floor begun. More here.
About halfway up Seneca Lake is a US Navy sonar testing facility I’ve seen only from land, likely from a high point in Sampson State Park . Recall my caveats that I’ve not traveled much of this waterway. The Finger Lakes area has a large number of wineries.
At the north end of the lake lies the town of Geneva, near what was once a major Seneca settlement known as Kanadaseaga. Since 1818, this has been the top end of the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, and we’re looking south here.
About five miles down the canal from the lake, we arrive at lock CS-4 in Waterloo. My very subjective best association with Waterloo is that wagons and then wooden automobile bodies were crafted here.
Seneca Falls is well-known as the location of the 1848 convention that ultimately led to the 19th amendment. Today there’s a NPS Historical Park located in a former knitting mill. Not so well-known is the town’s association with the 1946 movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.” The story starts on this bridge, with an event in April 1917 that led to this plaque commemorating Antonio Varacalli‘s sacrifice.
It’s a busy place for their canal fest.
Three very subjective associations: Seneca Meadows Landfill, aka Mt. Garbage, and please do read that link for lots of superlatives and rankings as well as some innovation; and Sauders Country Store.
And finally, this image of a notice from the late 1880s, commemorating an enterprising salt water captain who dragged a whale all the way here 132 years ago. Likely, mules were involved, and I suppose it was on a deck barge. The farther away from the sea he showed his prize, the less spectators were willing to smell, see, i.e., spectate.
If you’re expecting a falls at Seneca Falls . . . it’s been gone for over 100 years, even since Van Cleef Lake was created, covering the falls. The building is Trinity Church.
At the north end of Van Cleef, doubled locks CS-3 and 2, are located.
Tug Syracuse exits the bottom of CS-2 as a flotilla of kayaks waits to enter to be lifted to Van Cleef.
The waterway between Seneca Lake and the
top of Cayuga Lake is narrow, tree-lined and splendid. And beyond the trees to the left, marsh. More on that soon.
At the top end of Cayuga Lake, we approach CS-1.
As I said before, this is a wetland area. The name of the original inhabitants, the Cayuga, literally means “People of the Great Swamp.” As is true of the Mohawks and Oneidas, the Cayugas have begun purchasing their land back.
The waterway below CS-1 travels along the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, public land preserving the wetland habitat for the many animals that live there. The link in that previous sentence seems to carefully avoid mentioning glacial Lake Iroquois, mentioned earlier in relation to the Noses. The white spots on the horizon are trucks on the NYS Thruway, I-90. Looking directly to the right of the tree, the Erie Canal for a short distance runs parallel to the Interstate, beyond the Interstate. That’s where the junction at my newly-dubbed Tadadaho Island is and where we’re headed.
This drone shot looks southward back toward the junction, which you can almost see following the Seneca River; where it takes a 90-degree turn to the right, that’s Tadadaho Island. In the foreground you notice the remnants of an aqueduct. If you followed the remnants off to the left, you’d be in Montezuma NY.
Here a tug/barge are about to pass it. Note the people to the right standing on the aqueduct.
Looking back at it, you can see the arches. There were 31 arches when it was completed in 1857; all but 7 were demolished for the construction of the Barge Canal. More here.
Let’s drop anchor overnight here so that you can check the links and maybe go ashore to a well-preserved lock over 150 years old at Four (yes, 4!) Canals Park. An alternative is to go over to the Wildlife Refuge and look for birds.
For drone shots, thanks to Jim Kerins. Other photos, many thanks to Bob Stopper and Michael Riley, also author of Twelve and a Half Miles: The Erie Canal in Cayuga County and Bridge Dams on the Mohawk.
There are at least two more installments coming. To continue this series, I’ll reiterate what I said yesterday: if you’ve done any part of the NYS Canals–even 10 years ago– and feel like adding here any info or photos, activity or historical context, please contact me. You can supply photos of the area, activity, constituent, or era . . . Together we’ll collaborate to get that represented. It could be like this one cruising the Champlain Canal in the 1950s.
Click here for a series of posts and photos of Wards Island from a point almost exactly four years ago, in mid November when I spent a long day photographing the old crane ship on what was to be her last year working. Today she lies at the bottom of Hempstead Reef, a few nautical miles of the west end of Jones Beach Island, in 50 to 70 feet of water. A map follows below. I’d love to hear from anyone who has fished or dived on the reef during the past year, since she has graced the bottom with her hospitable presence.
Although I’ve posted some of these photos, the day I spent on her pulling Erie Canal navaids out of Oneida Lake was a magical day . . mid November, but warm and without wind. Enjoy this set.
Photos were taken from morning to night on November 16 and then the last one is November 17, 2015. All are re-edited.
She ran, if not quite like a deer.
Heading eastbound into the Lake had the look of space flight.
For a crane ship fashioned from a double-ended ferry, she plucked buoys from the water quite efficiently,
replacing them with ice buoys, of the right color of course.
But for November,
it was an enviable day for photos.
Some of the navaids in the Lake rest on concrete-capped shoals, islands.
At the end of the day, all buoys were transferred to a barge so that Wards Island had cleared decks for the next day of work.
Click on the DEC map below to get to an interactive map.
Click on the photo below to see more of the Flickr photo stream from which it was taken.
All photos not otherwise attributed taken in November 2015 by Will Van Dorp, who is eager to see photos of her taken in her watery home.
And as a wise friend, frequent commenter here has said in relation to another vessel, “[New boats] have come along to supplant and surpass their predecessors. We should count ourselves fortunate to have known so many of the elegant and durable old-timers while they were still around, and feel privileged to help transmit their images and stories into the future.” Thanks, Lee
tugster: a waterblog 
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