High and lifted up

Since turning left on the Hudson into the mouth of the Mohawk, we have been hearing about Lock E17.  It's legendary, with a 40.5 foot lift, half again as high as any along the canal.  When it was built, it replaced four locks.


And, it's imposing, looking like a huge concrete box with a door at the bottom -- which it is.  Showing below the green girder with the "17" painted on it in the image to the right is the counterweighted 150-ton door which lowers to hold water in the lock.  On approaching that gaping entrance and looking inside, the other end of the concrete box has look doors high on the wall. 

Easing in

Looking east from the top of Lock E17
Note the counterweight immediately under the "17" and the NY169 bridge swooping across the river in the distance.



A detail of one of the pair of chains
which control the downstream door
of Lock E17.



Looking toward Little Falls
The cliff to the right of the river is a popular rockclimbing spot. Boaters look at the climbers and climbers looks back at the boaters.