Erie Canal Part 5

Labor Day was pretty much just another day on the water for us; not even any extra boat traffic. We went through Locks 29 and 30 with no further incidents with the First Mate’s life and limbs. We spent that night and the next at Fairport. Its’ name was changed in the 1800s from Perrinsville because travelers thought it such a “fair port” and we would agree.

One of the unique things here is the Main St. Liftbridge over the Canal. It’s the only bridge in the world built so that the south end is higher than the north end. Also no corners on the bridge floor are square, earning it mention in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” 16 times.



Em finally found her “Ole Pal Sal”!


Other highlights were the “Lickety Split” ice cream shoppe, riding our bikes on part of the Canalway Trail and the Tuesday night classic car show complete with food and live music. The community makes very good use of their proximity to the Canal here.

The two locks we encountered on Sept. 3rd were in the worst shape of any we’d seen. We even heard chunks of the lock wall falling into the water as our fender boards moved against them!


Near here the Genesee River crosses the Canal. We went past Rochester, the third largest city in New York. In days past it was best known for milling flour. We went under bridge after bridge; only three of them were lift bridges that we had to open. Many were old fixed bridges like these.


This 4-mile section of the Canal is known as the “Rock Cut”. The deep cut was made through solid rock in the early 1900s. It’s hard to imagine how this work was done before modern machinery. Italian and Irish immigrants were hired for much of this work. Their influence in the area is very much in evidence as many of their descendants remained in this part of New York.



We spent that night at Brockport and spent 8 whole dollars for the dock and electricity – love this Erie Canal! There’s a nice new visitors’ center here too with showers, etc. The State University of NY (SUNY-Brockport) is here so it has a college-town feel. Brockport is the home of Cyrus McCormick, the inventor of the mechanical reaper. Production of this first practical farm implement began in 1845. There’s a lot of Victorian type architecture here. Here’s a scene on Brockport's Main Street.
Sept. 4th was the day of bridges. We went under 20 fixed bridges, 2 guard gates and 7 lift bridges we had to have opened for us. These lift bridges are only about 7 feet above the water at the normal position and are raised ten feet for boats to pass under.

We crossed over Culvert Road on an aqueduct; the only place where you can drive under the Erie Canal. It was built in 1823 and is noted in “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not”. The clearance for RVs going under the canal is 7ft. 6 in. We wondered what it would look like to drive under the Canal and see a boat going past above you – we may have to try that sometime!


We passed a llama farm and several huge orchards with trees just loaded with apples. When we got to Medina where we stayed at a free dock for the night, we were glad to see there was a little Farmers’ Market nearby with apples for sale. Just going past all those apple trees made us hungry for apples – they were delicious.

The next day was on to Gasport. In 1826 natural gas was discovered here bubbling out of the water so the name of the town was changed! Another free dock here; we met one of the homeowners along the Canal, Ethel. She welcomed us to Gasport and gave us a tip on where to get the local specialty – Beef on a Weck. (really Kimmelwick – a sort of Kaiser Roll piled high with roast beef – really tasty). Some of the friendly locals were there relaxing after work and were interested in our trip so that was kind of fun. Here it is, the Canal Side Inn of Gasport, New York!


There are "roaming operators" for some of the lift bridges on this part of the Canal. One person is responsible for two bridges; some are less than 1/2 mile apart but some are 3 to 5 miles apart so the guy opens one bridge then jumps in his truck and roars down to the next one. We never had to wait long but some boaters get stuck waiting for quite awhile to get through the 2 bridges.


We were told that the entire Canal is drained for the winter so the bottom can be inspected and repaired. The water goes into Oneida Lake, Niagara Falls and the Hudson River. It's something we'd never thought about but found it pretty interesting.

Nearing the end of this part of the adventure - Em, Paul and Ginger