Troy Federal Lock

The Erie Canal has no Lock 1 — so this is where boats really start. The Troy Federal Lock and Dam, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1913 and 1915 and opened in 1916, is a federal lock on the Hudson River, not a New York State canal lock at all. Its dam stretches from Troy to Green Island and marks the head of tide — the furthest upstream reach of the Atlantic’s pull, where the tidal Hudson finally ends. A single chamber lifts vessels roughly 14 feet, and above it the official Erie Canal begins a few miles on at Waterford’s Lock E2. Boaters call Troy the “unofficial start,” and the town beneath the lock earns the billing: by tradition it gave America “Uncle Sam” — Samuel Wilson, a Troy meatpacker who stamped his army barrels “U.S.”