Erie Canal Lift Bridges
One of the Erie Canal’s signature sights is the lift bridge — a road deck that rises straight up between two towers to let a boat pass, then drops back down for traffic. New York’s canal carries 16 of them on the Erie, and they cluster in one unforgettable stretch of the western canal, from Fairport through Orleans County to Lockport, where the waterway runs at street level through the middle of town after town.
The most famous is the Main Street lift bridge in Fairport — a canted, one-of-a-kind span that crosses the canal at an angle and has become the village’s emblem. But the whole corridor is a working museum of early-20th-century Barge Canal engineering, with bridgetenders still raising decks by the operator’s schedule through the navigation season.
The 16 Erie Canal lift bridges, east to west
- Main Street, Fairport [E-128] — Fairport
- Union Street [E-174] — Spencerport / Brockport corridor
- Washington Street [E-178] — Spencerport / Brockport corridor
- Park Avenue [E-181] — Brockport
- North Main Street [E-182] — Brockport
- East Avenue [E-187] — Holley / Albion corridor
- Hulberton Road [E-191] — Holley / Albion corridor
- Ingersoll Street [E-199] — Albion
- North Main Street, Albion [E-200] — Albion
- Eagle Harbor Road [E-203] — Orleans County
- Knowlesville Road [E-206] — Orleans County
- Prospect Avenue, Medina [E-211] — Medina
- Main Street, Middleport [E-216] — Middleport
- Gasport Road [E-222] — Gasport
- Adam Street [E-229] — Lockport area
- Exchange Street [E-230] — Lockport area
For boaters
Lift-bridge operators, like lockmasters, monitor VHF channel 13 and raise the bridge on request during posted hours; you can also sound one long and one short blast. Bridges and locks keep the same seasonal schedule — see navigation season & hours. Air draft, not water depth, is what governs the fixed bridges in between; read the low-bridge guidance in the boating guide before you go.
The lift-bridge corridor is also one of the best cycling stretches of the whole Canalway Trail — flat, paved, and lined with canal-town cafes. Explore the towns along it: Spencerport & Brockport, Albion & Medina, and Lockport.
Bridge list compiled from the New York State Canal Corporation lift-bridge dataset. Town associations are approximate; confirm operating hours with the Canal Corporation before you travel.