East Guard Lock Monroe County

The photo below is marked October 7, 1918. A dredge unit works in the foreground, and in the distance looking west is the East Guard Lock. Since the Barge Canal avoided the urbanized area center of Rochester, then population over 250,000, compared with a mere 1000 a century earlier, dredging was needed to route the…

will van dorp

April 3, 2025

1–2 minutes

Barge Canal construction, East Guard Lock, Monroe County

The photo below is marked October 7, 1918. A dredge unit works in the foreground, and in the distance looking west is the East Guard Lock.

Since the Barge Canal avoided the urbanized area center of Rochester, then population over 250,000, compared with a mere 1000 a century earlier, dredging was needed to route the new Barge Canal through rural areas. The two crew on the scow would never imagine what this rural area looks like in 2025.

The tugboat alongside the dredge was called Squaw. Merchant Vessels of the US identifies the 59′ x 17′ steam-powered boat as built in Buffalo in 1895. I don’t know the name of the dredge.

Farther west is the Rochester Rock Cut.

Today, as seen here from beneath the Kendrick Street Bridge, the bike path provides a green buffer between the canal and the settlement farther inland on either side. See the rowing scull?

Can anyone provide more info?

One response to “East Guard Lock Monroe County”

Lee Rust

April 4, 2025 at 2:02 am

The guard locks on the east and west sides of the Genesee River allowed the Canal to be isolated from flooding and other unusual variations in river level while still allowing Canal traffic to pass through the river crossing. Under most conditions, they remained open all the time and were only closed when the Canal was drained for the winter.

Judging from the construction cranes in this 1918 photo, it looks like the East Guard Lock is still being assembled. Originally there were two movable gates to form the lock, but in 2019 the western gate was removed during a renovation. Now only the eastern one remains as a guard gate and locking through is no longer possible. The Lehigh Valley railroad bridge in the background has been trackless for many decades and presently serves only as a biking and hiking trail over the Canal and adjacent I-390 expressway.

There hasn’t been any dredging in that part of the Canal for quite a long time, so every year it gets a bit shallower. The original Barge Canal depth minimum was supposed to be 12 feet, but the current depth listings in the vicinity of the East Guard Lock show only 7 to 9 feet.

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