Waterford Flight

The original route of the Erie Canal bypassed Cohoes Falls to the south through the city of Cohoes. At the turn of the century, plans for an enlarged Erie Canal were being drawn up to accommodate more traffic and larger vessels. However, instead of constructing canals from scratch like had been done previously, the plan proposed "canalizing" the local rivers. For the plan near Cohoes, it involved routing a channel from the Mohawk River north of Cohoes Falls directly to the Hudson River at Waterford. Traffic would then flow directly from the Hudson to the Mohawk via the Waterford Flight and completely bypass the old canals from Albany to Cohoes. The Troy Federal Lock and Dam would serve as the unofficial start of the Erie Canal, with the first lock of the Waterford Flight being the official beginning, hence it being named E-2 to this day. == Construction==

Construction of the Waterford Flight began in 1905 and took 10 years to complete. The locks have undergone periods of major restoration in recent decades, including replacement of lock doors and resurfacing of the concrete within the locks themselves. == Today ==

Today, the Waterford Flight is in use and is managed by the New York State Canal Corporation. The site of the Waterford Flight is also home to Lock 6 State Canal Park, which follows the length of the canal between the Hudson and the Mohawk and allows public access to the locks and a boat ramp at the Northern end. The set of locks was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2011. == References ==