Delta Lake
Images & Video
The modest flow of the Mohawk River at Rome could keep up with the locks of the Original Erie (top left), and of the Improved Erie (bottom left), but for the needs of the modern Barge Canal (bottom right), a reservoir would have to be built. In 1812, construction began on a dam in the Mohawk that would create Delta Lake, named after the town that was flooded in order to keep the massive locks of the modern barge canal up and running.
Downtown Delta, NY circa 1905
A reverse view of the previous photo
Dam construction is underway. The cranes in this picture are reminiscent of those used eighty years earlier to remove excavated rock from the Deep Cut at Lockport.
In the time before they put tracks on excavators, temporary rails like these were used to move heavy equipment over soft soils. (also see the preceding picture)
The completed Delta Dam as seen facing northeast. A spillway can be seen at the far end of the dam supplying a shallow canal. The Mohawk River runs under the aqueduct for that canal on its way southward to Rome. That canal was long ago discontinued (probably with the development of good highways), but the dry aqueduct remains today as a foot bridge for hikers and fishermen. Our photograph that we use to depict "The Mohawk River at Rome" was taken while standing in that aqueduct and facing south.
Delta Dam today showing the control house and water flowing into the Mohawk River
This is a map of what was the Village of Delta, NY
