To the locks

The Erie Canal opened yesterday at noon.  Here aboard the Grande Mariner we had an early breakfast and left our mooring before 8:00AM.  We didn't, however, beat the snow birds.  The yachts and the sail boats -- with their masts lashed to their decks any way possible (see photo on left), which lined the Hudson last night, were gone when I stepped out on deck before 6:00.

The first lock, the Troy Federal Lock and Dam, is in the Hudson, within sight of the Green Island Bridge at Troy (that's the bridge in the photo above, the odd-looking art deco).  Because the Hudson is tidal to this point it is considered ocean!   This first lock, then, is owned and operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. 

We walked across the Green Island Bridge yesterday afternoon following our visit to St Paul's Episcopal Church.  The bridge in this image is the Collar City Bridge, carrying New York State Thruway traffic.  Beyond that bridge is the dam, with the lock on the right side of the river.  In the distance is the 112th Street Bridge connecting the town of Cohoes on the west side of the river to Lansingburgh on the eastern side. 

 

Entering in the lock ...



... and, elevated 14 feet, moving into the "real" Hudson River.