The Schoharie Creek Aqueduct and Otis Eddy

With the stabilization activity at the Aqueduct, it seems like a good time to revisit some of its history. 

   The Schoharie Creek Aqueduct was constructed between 1839 and 1841, going into use to carry the Erie Canal over the creek in 1845. It served the state and its canawlers until 1916.  Let’s back up a moment, to discuss the contractor who was awarded the project in July of 1838.

   Born in Gloucester, Rhode Island on the 20th of January in 1787, Otis Eddy was a carpenter and manufacturer before he was ever a canal contractor.  He married Harriet Tracy in 1811 and they settled at New Berlin, NY. Later they removed to Ithaca, NY where Eddy was a mill owner. By 1820, he had established a partnership with Thomas Mathewson and Chester Walbridge to make paper under Otis Eddy & Co.  He left that partnership by mutual consent and Mathewson & Walbridge continued to produce.

   In 1826 Eddy built a cotton factory in Ithaca and by 1829 that company was advertising Quality “BROWN SHIRTINGS” and ensuring the customer it was not “loaded with salt, to make the goods weighty.” His mills – like many others that produced woolen wares, cloth, beer, flour, iron goods, and more – focused along the creeks in the village and it was his factories that would lead to the creation of “Eddyville” which was eventually absorbed by the municipality of Ithaca.

   Eddy’s cotton mill employed around fifteen to twenty men and fifty to sixty children, who produced about 1,000 yards of cotton cloth every day. One of the men hired as a machinist was Ezra Cornell.  The same Cornell who would assist in development of the telegraph system with Samuel F.B. Morse and establish the Western Union Telegraph Company.  The same Cornell who would found Cornell University in Ithaca.  In fact, if you visit Cascadilla Hall on the campus of Cornell University, it now stands where Eddy’s Mill once stood.

   The Economic Panic of 1837 caused a widespread economic recession that led to the closing of Eddy’s Mill as well as eventually disrupting several canal infrastructure projects.  During this time, Eddy sought new forms of income, hence the bid for construction contract.  The aqueduct he was to construct had been partially designed by John B. Jervis and was contracted to be completed by October 15th, 1840.

   The Schoharie Creek Aqueduct was engineered to carry the canal six-hundred twenty-four feet across the creek, over 14 arches.  This marvel of engineering was one of dozens of aqueducts used along the canal between Buffalo and Albany.  It would be noted as one of the biggest improvements to the system during the enlargement era of the Erie Canal.  No longer would barges have to directly traverse the    waters of the Schoharie has they had since 1822, but now they could glide gently above within the wooden trough of the aqueduct.

   Construction delays, increased cost of materials and labor, compounded by creditors made the endeavor probably far more than Eddy had expected to take on.  Due to the lack of funds at the disposal of the Canal Board (related to the recession and Stop & Tax Law) the delays in construction meant the Aqueduct wasn’t completed until December of 1841. Eddy had been given extensions to the deadline for the structure by the engineer and commission, but more than twelve months behind contract deadline may have been more than anyone expected.  To add insult (as well as injury*) to that embarrassment, he still had to wait until May of 1842 to receive final payment for the contract. His petition to the state to recover interest on that delay bounced around through committee’s until after his death on September 5th, 1843. His widow Harriet was left to seek remunerations from the Canal Commission Fund to repay debts incurred during the aqueduct construction.

   Between December 1841, and the operating season of 1845, the Aqueduct laid dormant awaiting the completion of other enlargement contracts to put the new structure into alignment. Unused but still needing to be maintained, the aqueduct had to be kept full of water in the wooden trough extending those six hundred plus feet, lest the timbers go into disrepair or sprout legs and disappear.

   During the years between 1845 and 1916 the aqueduct excelled at its function to convey canal barges high above the flow of the creek but not without cost.  Semi-regular rebuilds of the wooden trough were necessary due to ice jams and impacts during spring freshets or just the general wearing out of the timbers.  The towpath across the arches was regraded on a regular basis to maintain the integrity of the highly used thoroughfare and masonry repointed from time to time as needed.

   At the start of the 20th-Century, New York State began grand plans to create a third version of the canal. The “Barge Canal” would replace much of the Mohawk Valley canal infrastructure with a new system in a canalized Mohawk River.  Much like the original and enlarged canals, this new system would open in stages. By 1916 this section of the Mohawk River was ready for navigation and the wooden trough was removed from the Aqueduct. A NYS Department of Public Works memorandum gave orders to a contractor allowing use of the timber in the construction around Lock E9 in Rotterdam Junction, essentially stating that if they were to use any of it, they must use all of it.  In 1918 the entire Barge Canal System was on-line, leaving the fate of the Aqueduct up to the course of time.  

   Between the 1920’s and mid-1930’s a series of flood events caused problems in the Mohawk and Upper Hudson Valley’s.  After a particularly devasting event in the late 1930’s – made worse by impounded ice jammed along the aqueduct piers – it was decided to alleviate those issues by removing the eastern arches of the structure.  By the early 1950’s, having witnessed the removal of those arches and seeing a hastening to the loss of historic canal features locally, the Fort Hunter Canal Society was formed. 

   The Fort Hunter Canal Society advocated for the establishment of a Canal Restoration Museum and eventually caught the ear of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. By 1966 land was acquired and Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site was created.  Even at the earliest stages, preservation of the aqueduct has remained essential in the conversation to the mission of the site.  In the late 1970’s a stabilization project was completed using a steel tendon anchorage system.  Unfortunately, after twenty years, those cables failed. Another piece of history was lost into the creek below, but six of the arches remain and are now inline to be stabilized again. 

   It is everyone’s hope that this stabilization is not only an immediate success to mitigate the threat to this National Landmark Erie Canal structure, but an enduring one.  A project that will allow the aqueduct to carry on into history as an example of human spirit and engineering. It will be then, that the legacy of canal builders mingles with preservation advocates and our own modern impressions made upon future generations to the worthy cause of remembering our past as a shared experience. 

 

*Eddy sustained injury during the construction, having broken a leg.

____________