Yankee Masonry

The hugely successful Erie Canal was considered one of the great works of its age, but today few of its handsome masonry aqueducts remain. Of these the most impressive is the Schoharie Creek Aqueduct at Fort Hunter, New York, which is shown above. Opened in 1845, it carried barges over a dangerous slack-water crossing that had long hampered traffic on the canal. It has not been properly preserved, and today only nine of its fourteen arches remain. The magnificent Starrucca Viaduct at Lanesboro, Pennsylvania, opposite, has fared much better; this 1,040-foot-long bridge, built by the Erie Railroad to carry the lightweight trains of 1851, is still in use and has no trouble supporting the weight of modern freight drags.