E7 Vischer Ferry

Lock E7 runs on the past. It opened around 1915 as part of New York’s machine-age Barge Canal, and its gates and valves were driven by direct current — after 1925, fed by the Vischer Ferry hydroelectric plant humming across the Mohawk. It is the tallest lift in the Schenectady reach, hoisting boats 27 feet at mile 13, where the “canal” is no dug ditch at all but the Mohawk River itself, held navigable and delivered up the valley. Step onto the towpath beside it and you can walk into the Vischer Ferry Nature & Historic Preserve, where a hand-dug stretch of the original Erie Canal still survives — Clinton’s ditch and its concrete successor a short walk apart.