New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-08-22

five hundred feet wide. For these and the nu-
merous other smaller structures more than
3,500Oc0 cubic yards IF concrete will he used
Some Of these structures viii be notable ex-
amples of their class. The lock at Little Falls,
for example. will be the highest single lift lock
in the world the lift being 46-- feet The lower
gate If this lock, unlike any other along the
canal, will be Of the lift type, and To avoid the
necessity Of having gate high enough = reach
the whole height If the side walls a concrete
beam will span the opening, with sufficient clear
ance above the lower pool and in front of this
the gate will slide BY the side Of this lock will
be storage chamber reservoir 10 allow the
use of part of the water for second lock4ge.
one of the illustrations shows a lock in process
OF construction. part Of the side walls being
completed while concrete is still being placed in
the forms at the unfinished portions. This lock
is being built in the Mohawk Valley. at Minden-
Vile, but of lower lift-2012 feet
Another instance of remarkable lock cOEstruc-
ton takes place in the vicinity of Waterford
just after the canal leaves the Hudson for fts
westerly course across the state. Within a
stretch of mile and a half five locks being
built, with aggregate lift of 10 feet-the
greatest flight of high lift locks in the world.
These take the place of what known to
canal men the ''sixteens''-the locks extend
ing along three miles or the present Candl-anc
they really overcome elevation which re-
quires seventeen of the existing locks to attain.
The users of the original Erie Canal found much
difficulty in getting their boats through the
first locks in this region. which were nearer to-
gether than the present SiXteenS. The reaches
were so short between the locks and they were
so nearly drained in supplying necessary water
for lockage that the boats were grounded This
would happen, also in the new canal if pre-
caution had not been taken to build a pool
above each lock of such area that the drawing
of lockful Of water will not apprecably affect
its volume. The visitor of the present day to
these works Of construction may see the great
concrete core walls reaching down to bedrock
and stretching away from the locks to the OBJ
posite hills, indicating where the embankments
will mark the confines of these pools In the
entertainments Will be placed Spillways, with by
pass channels leading from them around the
locks to the pools below. Through the pools the
channel will be bordered by line of concrete
docking on either side, to which boats may tie
while waiting for lockage. and which incident
ally will furnish foot passage between the locks
Another photograph shows a great dam that is
beirs built just below the point where the canal
enters the Mohawk. at the head of this flight
of locks. on radius of seven hundred feet its
masonry will swing from bluff 10 bluff for more
than nineteen hundred feet and through the ex-
tent OF nearly a semicIrcle. Its crest will stand
thirty-six feet above the river bottom, about
one-half the height of the great cataract at
Cohoes, less than a mile below. The photograph
shows the upper portion Of the dam built In
alternate sections. This is done to allow the
passage of the river. while another section of
the dam is being constructed within the Golfer
dam seen in the foreground
Another imposing structure VIII be the aque-
mot hat &c to Ia
Creek, near Medina. The gorge at this poin, is
about 90 feet deep and 500 feet wide at the top
The plans call for a reinforced concrete aaue-
duct having a single arch OF 800 feet span and
a length at top of sos feet and carrying a trunk
of lo3 feet clear width with a walk on each
$ de, making the faces of the arch rings nearly
100 feet apart No arch aqueduct with SO great
Il span has been built, and the longest
l.