History

Long before it was a major canal port, Waterford was a strategically significant and vital river port. Located at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, the area now known as Waterford was inhabited by native peoples for thousands of years prior to European settlement. Its location at the junction of two major waterways, and the presence of a shallow “ford” across the Mohawk River from which the Town and Village derive their names, made it a natural population center.

When crew members from Henry Hudson’s “Half Moon” explored the waterways around Waterford by small boat during Hudson’s 1609 voyage, they would have seen the natural advantages of the area for trade and commerce. Soon after Dutch traders and trappers arrived from the Manor of Rensselaerwyck to settle the area, they began to make use of the inherent commercial benefits their location at the head of tidal navigation on the Hudson River. Waterford’s days as a major maritime industrial community had begun.

Though sloop navigation as far north as Waterford throughout the 18th century was common, certain limitations for loading and discharging of cargo existed. In the 1790s, local residents made several major investments to improve river access, including substantial dredging projects and construction of a 244-foot pier to reach the deepest part of the river. Waterford continued to grow as a river port, though slowly.

That changed virtually overnight in 1823 with the completion of the Champlain Canal, two years ahead of the more famous Erie. Unlike the original Erie Canal, the Champlain cut right through the middle of Waterford, bringing prosperity and an exponential growth in waterborne commerce.

Shortly after that, the State of New York constructed a dam at Troy and a “sloop lock” to raise and control the level of water, allowing larger vessels laden with more cargo access to Waterford’s docks. From this point on, and still to this day, the water no longer rose and fell with the changing of the tide in Waterford.

What rose quickly, though, was the number of heavily loaded vessels transiting through town, and rapid growth followed. With the increased number of vessels traveling New York’s canals after the 1835 enlargement began, choke points in vessel traffic south of Waterford became an issue. In the 1850s, the State constructed a “side-cut” linking the Champlain Canal with the Hudson-Mohawk junction. This allowed canal boats to enter (or exit) the Champlain Canal at Waterford, rather than West Troy (Watervliet) or Albany. This side-cut is still intact and visible today next to Erie Canal Lock 2.

In the late 1800s, small steam tugs began to appear on New York’s canals, augmenting the mules which had provided propulsion for New York’s economy for nearly a century. One of the first, and best known of these, was the Annex. Owned by the VanDervoort family, the Annex operated both locally and along the length of the Champlain Canal. Long before talk of the barge canal and the eventual ubiquity of tugboats, the Annex and vessels like her foreshadowed the next major chapter in the maritime history of the area.

When in 1899 Governor Teddy Roosevelt declared that “the present canal must be enlarged,” events were set in motion which would finally bring the famed Erie Canal (or its grandson) to Waterford. An early conundrum facing the designers of what would become the Barge Canal was how to replace the cumbersome, painfully slow flight of sixteen locks through Cohoes which moved boats around the “Niagara of the East”: the Cohoes Falls. Though early plans called for a gigantic hydraulic boat elevator directly next to the Cohoes Falls, engineers ultimately settled on undeveloped land just to the north in Waterford. What was constructed, the Waterford Flight of Five, remains an engineering marvel to this day. In 1 ½ miles, the Flight lifts boats 169’ to the top of the Cohoes Falls. It is the largest lift in the shortest distance of any flight of locks in the world, and twice the total lift of the entire Panama Canal.

With the completion of the Waterford Flight in 1915, and the entire Barge Canal in 1918, new maritime activity came to Waterford’s shores. During construction, a 1200’ long wharf was constructed along the approach to Erie Lock 2. (Though Erie Lock 2 was, and is, the entrance lock to the new Erie Canal, old Erie Lock 1 in Albany remained in operation for several years after the opening of the Barge Canal to give vessels access to Albany’s upper basin and lumber district. Since there could not be more than one Erie Lock 1, and since the federal government replaced the state’s sloop lock at Troy with a barge lock, canal builders called the first lock at Waterford “Lock 2.”)

The wharf at Waterford soon became the busiest tugboat port north of New York Harbor. The location at the junction of two major waterways and at the foot of a Flight through which barges could only travel one at a time meant there was always plenty of tugboat work. At least one or two “day boats” were stationed at Waterford at any given time, in addition to other tugs coming and going, waiting for barges, and getting supplies.

Throughout much of the 20th century this frenetic pace along the waterfront continued, making Waterford the Tugboat Capital of Upstate New York. When traffic along New York’s canals began declining in the 60s and 70s, Waterford continued a fairly brisk business. The renowned Scarano Brothers Boatbuilding enterprise got its start in Waterford during this period, and activity at nearby Matton Shipyard (now undergoing restoration under the care and supervision of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation) kept the Port of Waterford relatively busy.

When the 112th Street lift bridge just south of Waterford was replaced by a fixed span in the mid 1990s, the Port of Waterford was closed to all but canal traffic for the first time in three centuries. However, the heart and soul of Waterford’s working waterfront, the tugboats, remain.

Though dozens of tugboats line the shores each September at the Waterford Tugboat Roundup, Waterford is still home to several tugboats year-round. The Tug Chancellor is undergoing restoration by the Waterford Maritime Historical Society, and the Town of Waterford’s own Tug Buffalo is undergoing restoration by a team of local dedicated volunteers. Either tug can be seen in the area above or below Lock E-2 on almost any given day. Nearby, at Matton Shipyard, the famed motorship Day Peckinpaugh is undergoing restoration by the New York State Museum, in partnership with the New York State Canal Corporation, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission, the Canal Society of New York State, and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

Most importantly, the tradition of tugboat commerce in Waterford continues to day with the fleet of NYS Marine Highway Transportation home-ported here. If you are lucky, you might catch a glimpse of the Margot, Benjamin Elliot, or Mame Faye along the waterfront between jobs.

Future plans to help preserve Waterford’s rich maritime heritage and tell the story of our canals and rivers are being developed. Possibilities include restoration of the Waterford side-cut, a mule-drawn canal boat ride along the Champlain Canal, the building of a replica of the Tug Annex, and full restoration and operation of the Chancellor and the Buffalo.