ALBANY, N.Y. - A 4-foot-deep T-shaped cavity dug from weedy ground in the shadow of Interstate 787 overpasses here may reveal well-preserved stonework of what was once the nation's most important transportation artery.
Two professors from Union College in Schenectady say that after two years of searching, they have found the 160-year-old eastern terminus of the Erie Canal in the vacant lot near the Hudson River in Albany.
'Buried quite carefully'
"Previous studies said that the canal was destroyed from Cohoes on down," said Denis Foley, a Union research professor in anthropology, who joined civil engineer and Assistant Professor Andrew Wolfe for the project. "But we found it, buried quite carefully."
Once flowing with water, the Albany hub - locks, the collector's house and the acre-sized Little Basin holding area - became obsolete in 1918 with the opening of the New York State Barge Canal and a lock system that ended about 12 miles north of Waterford. Years later, the Albany site was drained, filled and forgotten. The entire canal fell out of use with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1955.
In Albany, with no elements left visible, old photos and maps were used as guides for the dig, said Len Tantillo, a historical artist who supports renewal of the city's riverfront. "We knew that Lock 1 was in existence," Tantillo said. "We knew if we found it, it could be restored."
Commissioned by Gov. DeWitt Clinton and completed in 1825, the Erie Canal tamed the marshy wild lands of central New York and cleared a path for burgeoning commerce on a national scale. The lock found by Foley and Wolfe was built in 1843 as part of an expansion of the canal.
The canal stretched for more than 350 miles, from Albany to Buffalo, cutting shipping costs and travel time between Lake Erie and the Hudson River from almost a month to seven to 10 days. For decades, prosperity flowered along its path.
The man-made waterway was a bold, epic undertaking. "The canal is a symbol of a fearless young nation with a sense that anything's possible," Tantillo said.
A busy spot
Albany, where the canal met the Hudson, was one of its busiest points.
"Everything that came on the Erie Canal passed this point - immigrants, settlers, produce and raw materials," Wolfe said.
He and Foley located the lock Oct. 27, using test digs and the roadway system to get their bearings. The pair and teams of volunteer diggers from the college eventually unearthed the edge of the lock's stone platform. "We knew we had hit it. We only had doubts about where we'd hit it," Wolfe said.
The excavation has unearthed the northwest chamber, a wall of dry laid stonework. A sister lock is thought to lie nearby.