The East

In the eastern potion, the canal dropped 419 feet in the 109 miles between Utica and the Hudson River. In comparison the drop between the Lake Erie and Utica was only 146 feet over 252 miles. This problem was compounded by the topography of the Mohawk River valley. There was to be 86 miles of the canal to be laid out there. The problem with the river valley was that the banks were cramped by steep hillsides, many of which ended at the waters edge. This meant that the construction of the canal channel had to be done in the river itself, supported on a masonry base and protected by high embankments. This looked to be a nightmare. However, Canvass White (a principle engineer at this point) had a plan.

Whites solution was based on the placement of the locks, which automatically determines the pound levels (the stretch of channel between the locks). "In order to take advantage of the better line available on the north bank, he ran the canal across the Mohawk four miles below Schenectady on a 748-foot-long aqueduct. Twelve miles farther east, at the Cohoes Falls, he recrossed to the south bank via a 1,188-foot-long aqueduct". White supervised this work through in three years. By the end of 1823 the Erie Canal was open from Brockport, some twenty miles west of Rochester, all the way to the Hudson River at Albany.