History Disintegrating

I have lived within three miles of the Connecticut River for 70 of my 76 years. I have loved the river through flood and drought, pollution and pristine. One of my favorite bike rides goes south along the river’s east side from Warehouse Point (East Windsor) to South Windsor, across the river to Windsor and then north on the west side to Windsor Locks. It’s the bike ride I call Ride the Four Windsors. Another favorite ride is the Windsor Locks/Suffield Canal State Park Trail. It is the Canal that I want to discuss in this essay.

The Connecticut DEP website for the Windsor Locks Canal State Park Trail relates some of the history of the canal.

The Windsor Locks Canal was constructed between June,  1827 and November, 1829 to skirt the Enfield rapids in the Connecticut River. The continuous water connection from the Connecticut River valley farmlands above   the rapids through to Hartford and points south provided farmers with expanded markets and investors with  freight fees in this business venture. Today’s paved surface lies atop the towpath, the actual walkway which animals, often mules, hauled the freight barges by rope north and south along the water way. Author Charles Dickens was a notable visitor who passed through the canal on February 7, 1842.

Because of the rapids, the canal was necessary to get boats between Hartford and Springfield without carting their contents overland between Warehouse Point and Enfield. This once necessary and beautiful waterway is rapidly decaying because no one wants to take responsibility for it.

Back in the day, the canal was drained every year to make necessary repairs. It seems that since it is not used any more for floating pleasure boats around the rapids no one cares. The “new” bridge over the canal is not high enough for boats to pass under, nor is it a bridge that can open,

There is so much dredging that needs to be done I suppose it has become cost prohibitive. Continuing to do it every year would have made more sense. A lot of debris has fallen into the canal. Recent storms have dropped many canal-bank trees into the water.

Up at the Suffield end, the single lock has completely disintegrated.

How can the State of Connecticut allow such degradation to the canal when it parallels a State Park Trail?

The trail along the canal is the old towpath. Unfortunately, it is paved and the pavement is deteriorating rapidly. I suspect that by next year I’m not going to ride the trail because of its condition. How sad!

What is happening is that too many of the paved trails are deteriorating and there isn’t any money for upkeep. One solution is to stop paving and make these trails hard packed dirt and stone dust. Another solution is to do what they did on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. Plastic plates were sunk on both sides of the trail where tree roots could cause upheaval of the pavement. The plates went deeper than the roots, which eliminated the problem. At least that was the theory. I’ll know better when I ride the CCRT in mid-September.

Look at the accompanying photos of the Windsor Locks Canal and weep (taken Aug. 18, 2012).

Mud swallows on the wall of the canal viaduct over Stony Brook

Shows how the lock has degraded

Another view of the lock

The water gates where river water enters the canal. However, in the past few years not enough water has been let in to flush the canal of accumulated silt and debris

Shows the surface of canal water just south of the water gates

The canal looking south from the water gates

A bench placed so you and I can sit and contemplate the degradation...how lovely