What is a Lock?
Video & Images
Kevin Lynch is the Chief Lock Operator at Rochester's lock #32 southeast of town. The video includes his description of the locking process while a ten-minute "locking up" operation is played back at ten times normal speed.
Water flows into and out of locks through underground plumbing by the force of gravity alone. There are no pumps involved in the process anywhere. That means that in order climb hills with locks like the one above, there has to be a natural supply of water from either a lake or a river that is ABOVE the lock. Not only so, but the supply has to be enough during dry summers AND during periods of high traffic when the lock is cycled more frequently. Finding these sources was one of the key challenges of the early surveyors of the Erie's route across New York State.
