GPS- 43.050467, -76.148400
The Weighlock Building
Home of the
Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse
Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse
The only extant Weighlock Building left from the Erie Canal!
This building has seen a lot...built only two years after Syracuse, Lodi and Salina united to form the City of Syracuse...this building has its own story to tell on how it fits into the canal framework.
The only one left of its kind, the Weighlock Building was originally one of 7 along the canal that helped ensure that everyone paid a fair toll based upon the cargo they were carrying. Boats would enter here to get weighed.
Well It should be!
Boats entered the lock area, the gates closed and the water was drained through and underground tunnel to Onondaga Creek. The boat rested on a weighing cradle which took the load weight and the boats registered empty weight was subtracted. Every boat had a registered empty weight. Then the toll was calculated.
And while this is all done with simplistic beauty,
would this be considered a piece of art?
A Leonardo Da Vinci?
Well It should be!
So what does this building (and other locks as well) have to do with Leonardo Da Vinci?
Answer: He designed the type locks that engineers later used in the Erie Canal:
The Mitered Lock!
This miter can be seen in the lock gates outside the building
Over the years this building saw...Market Hall,
Syracuse's original seat of government
"In 1883, New York State decided to stop charging a toll to utilize the canal system, as over $121 million in tolls had been collected, which more than covered the $7 million construction costs. At that time, the Weighlock Building became a dry dock for boat repair and a New York State office building, while other weighlock buildings were torn down. The canal through Syracuse was paved over in the 1920s after the Barge Canal opened to the north of the city."
(per the Erie Canal Museum website)
The second floor was used by the Canal Corporation's Engineering Dept as well.
The new City Hall
Completed in 1893
Designed by Charles Erastus Colton
"In 1883, New York State decided to stop charging a toll to utilize the canal system, as over $121 million in tolls had been collected, which more than covered the $7 million construction costs. At that time, the Weighlock Building became a dry dock for boat repair and a New York State office building, while other weighlock buildings were torn down. The canal through Syracuse was paved over in the 1920s after the Barge Canal opened to the north of the city."
(per the Erie Canal Museum website)
The second floor was used by the Canal Corporation's Engineering Dept as well.
Then it fell into disuse after the canal era when there were no longer boats in need of repair.
It became home to a new kind of transport...cars!
It became home to a new kind of transport...cars!
A car dealership used it for a while...
...and almost swallowed up by the surrounding landscape,
like Virginia Lee Burton's "The Little House"
A fixture for over 170 years, a stalwart of Erie Blvd...this building was saved from demolition by the Junior League and restored and turned into a learning opportunity.
A bit of history about this building:
https://eriecanalmuseum.org/about/1850-syracuse-weighlock-building/?fbclid=IwAR2Od2ayO-fPVTKHQzPLkWNI7_WhLpTISXQuFAL0mo3XrzvpP_oQRTwpp6s
A bit of history about this building:
https://eriecanalmuseum.org/about/1850-syracuse-weighlock-building/?fbclid=IwAR2Od2ayO-fPVTKHQzPLkWNI7_WhLpTISXQuFAL0mo3XrzvpP_oQRTwpp6s
Thankfully it was saved and restored
so that today we can appreciate this critical piece for the canal.
For without it, the debt of building it would have been hard to fairly repay
And now it is a museum, full of canal history,
with a full size canal boat replica
to get a taste of life on the canal
Stop in and check it out!
And so we have paid our tolls, and continue on the canal westward...so much to see in this big bustling city. Some orders to drop off, some orders to pick up, so we can't rest here...we must press on toward our next stop...
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