Erie Canal Rewatering Downtown Rochester

The campaign for restoring the old 1842 Erie Canal to city centre Rochester has been
ongoing since June 2004.The plan illustrated on the map provides the essential details.
The old Erie Canal bed, including an 1842 aqueduct across the Genesee River, lies in
a trench beneath Broad Street from South Avenue on the east to Brown Street on the northwest. The water elevation of the 1918 Erie Canal located behind the Court
Street Dam (south east portion of map) is 3 feet higher than the historic level of the
water in the old canal through downtown. An ample supply of water is thereby guaranteed.

Therefore the plan is to remove Broad Street, build a round lock on the east side
of today’s Erie Canal (at the lower right corner of the map) and a short new canal
north from the lock to the existing old canal bed thereby joining the old canal
downtown with the New York State Canal System and the world.



The vision has been spearheaded by Inland Waterways International,
the Canal Society of New York State, ADROC (Advocates for the Restoration
of Rochester’s Canal—Thomas X. Grasso, Rory and Tim Zimmer, and local businessman Michael Hess), and the Genesee Community Charter School led by head master
Dr. Lisa Wing. A scaled down version of the plan is in the City of Rochester’s Master Plan as prepared by design consultants Cooper-Carry of New York City authored by Ben Wauford.

Related Links:

http://www.broadstreetcorridor.com/home.html