Macedon and Palmyra

The Mud Creek Aqueduct is located in Aqueduct Park, just west of the Village of Palmyra, NY, north of NY Route 31, and adjacent to existing Erie Canal Lock No. 29. The remains of the aqueduct include the towpath bridge, on the south side of the canal, now a part of a walking trail, and the stone supports for the (now missing) wooden canal prism, which held the water, on the north side. The creek, officially called Ganargua Creek, runs beneath the aqueduct. Below are some photographs of the Mud Creek Aqueduct taken Fall 2003, Summer 2005, Fall 2006 and Fall 2007.

For the original plans for the Mud Creek Aqueduct, see The Aqueduct in the 175th Anniversary: Making It Work section.


The Mud Creek Aqueduct, Palmyra, NY-- the south side as seen from NY Route 31. The white building in the background is the current lock house



The Mud Creek Aqueduct -- the north side. In the lower right is the water level of the old Enlarged Erie Canal.	The Mud Creek Aqueduct -- the north side (picture taken by Irene Grindall).


The supports for the canal prism for the Mud Creek Aqueduct -- Above left: western end from the tow path level ; Above right: eastern end from the tow path level Below: the supports from the north, seen from the creek level The top of the waterfall in these pictures is the water level of the old canal.



The Mud Creek Aqueduct, looking southwest from the creek level.(Nov.2006)


The Mud Creek Aqueduct, looking west from the towpath level (Oct. 2007)

Aldrich Change Bridge -- Palmyra, NY

Aqueduct Park also includes the reconstructed Aldrich Change Bridge No. 35, which allowed the towpath to switch from one side of the canal to the other during the Enlarged Erie Canal era (1840-1905). West of this bridge, the towpath was on the south side of the canal, and east of the bridge, on the north side. Originally entirely on the south side of the canal, the enlargement left no room between the enlarged canal and adjacent buildings in Palmyra, so the towpath was switched to the north side through the village.

First erected in1858, the Aldrich Towing Path Change Bridge is the oldest iron bridge in New York State and one of only two bridges known to survive from the first enlargement of the Erie Canal. In addition to its importance as an artifact of one of the nation's earliest and most significant public works, it draws attention to one of the lesser known and largely overlooked designs of Squire Whipple, nineteenth-century America's foremost theoretician-practitioner of truss bridge design. (See the Making It Work: The Bridge page for more information on the Whipple bridge.) The bridge was fabricated in the Waterford, New York iron works of George W. Eddy and erected by John Hutchinson of Troy as part of a two-span towing path change bridge at the Rochester weighlock. In 1879, the bridge was removed and placed in storage. After the collapse of the wooden change bridge just west of Palmyra, one span of Hutchinson's bridge was shortened and placed in service as Bridge No. 35, in which role it served until the downtown Palmyra section of the first enlargement was bypassed. Sold to a farmer in 1915, who erected it across Ganargua Creek, it served as a farm bridge until approximately 1970, when it was abandoned. After it had been washed from its abutments by ice and high water in 1996, it was salvaged, dismantled, stored, and finally re-erected in Aqueduct Park in 2003 and 2004.

A more detailed history of the Aldrich Towing-Path Change Bridge is extracted from the Historic American Engineering Record document, HAER, NY,59-PALM,1-



Above: The Aldrich Change Bridge in early 2004 ; Below: The Aldrich Change Bridge in Fall 2006.

For historical images of the Erie Canal through Macedon and Palmyra,
see the Images of the Erie Canal between Rochester and Syracuse page in the Take a Tour section of this web site.

http://www.eriecanal.org/MacedonPalmyra.html

Enlarged Erie Canal Lock No. 60 -- Macedon, NY

Mud Creek Aqueduct -- Macedon/Palmyra, NY

Aldrich Change Bridge -- Palmyra, NY



Enlarged Erie Canal Lock No. 60 -- North (lengthened) chamber Left: looking west towards Rochester from within the canal prism ; Middle: looking east towards Albany from within the canal prism ; Right: looking east from the heelpath.


Enlarged Erie Canal Lock No. 60 -- South (single length) chamber Left: looking east from the towpath level (the north chamber can be seen to the left) ; Middle: looking west from within the canal prism ; Right: looking east from within the canal prism.