Locks - Erie Canal In addition to the 15 lift bridges there are 35 locks in the Erie Canal, as it rises and falls from 565' above sea level in the Niagara River to sea level at Troy on the Hudson River. As well, over 200 highway and railroad bridges cross the canal with a controlled height of 15&1/2'. The lock dimensions are 300' long by 45' wide. They raise and lower from 6' to 40'. The 5 locks at Waterford, where the Erie canal joins the Hudson River, are known as the famed "Waterford flight". Here boats are lifted and lowered the greatest height in the shortest distance of any canal in the world. To protect our boat from the lock walls we used 3 fenders on each side. One at the front and 2 joined with a board on the side. We found we were able to control our vessel quite well with just the 2 of us on board - one on each end armed with a boat hook to control us against the wall. The walls were very slimy - complete with slugs and zebra muscles. Our worst problem came at Lock 9 where the current from the adjoining dam was very strong. We found it very difficult to control our drifting due to our slow approach speed to the lock.