What is a dry dock?
A dry dock  is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, and repair of ships, boats, and other water craft, and this one was in Middleport at the turn of the century.

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The start of the building of the Erie Canal in 1817 until its official opening in 1825 helped to spur the growth of our little community.  Even the name Middleport comes from our location midway between Lockport and Newport. Newport is now known to us as Albion.

At a cost of over 7 million dollars and more than 8 years of construction, the then proposed 363 mile long canal opened a water route  through the Great Lakes to the western states. It was a plan that President Thomas Jefferson said was a “splendid project and may be executed a century hence…” It would take only 16 years for builders to solve the problems involved in building the canal and making it a reality.

Middleport NY – On the historic Erie Barge Canal

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