The Town of Delta, NY
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The
modest flow of the
Mohawk River at Rome could keep up with the locks of the Original Erie
(top left), and of the Improved Erie (bottom left), but for the needs
of the modern Barge Canal (bottom right), a
reservoir would have to be built. In 1812, construction began
on
a dam in the Mohawk that would create Delta Lake, named after the town
that was flooded in order to keep the massive locks of the modern barge
canal up and running.
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Downtown Delta, NY
circa 1905
A reverse
view of the previous photo
Dam
construction is underway. The cranes in
this picture are reminiscent of those
used eighty years earlier to remove excavated rock from the
Deep Cut
at Lockport
In the time
before they put tracks on excavators, temporary rails
like these were used to move heavy equipment over soft soils.
(also see the preceding picture)
The
completed
Delta Dam as seen facing northeast. A spillway can be seen at
the far end of the dam
supplying a shallow canal. The Mohawk River runs under the
aqueduct
for that canal on its way southward to
Rome. That canal was long ago discontinued (probably with the
development of good highways), but the dry aqueduct remains today as a
foot
bridge for hikers and fishermen. Our photograph that we
use to depict "The
Mohawk
River at Rome" was taken while standing in
that aqueduct and facing south.
|
Delta Dam
today showing the control house and water flowing into the Mohawk River
