Canalize

In 1903, almost 90 yrs after the beginning of Clinton's canal, the people of the State decided again to enlarge it by the construction of what has been generally termed the "Barge Canal." This time, in order to accommodate much larger barges, the engineers decided to abandon much of the original man-made channel and use new techniques to "canalize" the rivers that the canal had been constructed to avoid - the Mohawk,Oswego,Seneca,Oneida and Clyde- and Oneida Lake.

A uniform channel was dredged ; dams were built to create long, navigable pools, and locks were built adjacent to the dams to allow the barges to pass from one pool to the next. When it opened in 1918, the whole system was renamed the NY State Barge Canal.