| Just by pure luck we drove to Lockport New York on Wednesday October 12 to see a part of the Erie Canal. When we walked to locks 34 and 35 to take a look a strange craft was transiting. It turned out to be a new exhibit for the Erie Canal Museum in Albany. The motorized barge had been parked for a month and just that day had made the 50 foot drop from the upper portion of the Lockport portion of the Canal to the lower portion. The barge had been brought to Lockport at an expense of about $50,000, mainly towing fees and now made its way down the canal where it would spend a couple of days before journeying under its own power, the engines having been repaired. I had to walk back to the car to get the cameras so we mised photographing the actual passage, but we saw it and that's what counts. This was an historic day for Lockport and canal lovers. |