A transformative project with hopes to revitalize downtown Albany’s access to the Hudson River is being proposed. Unlike past projects and proposals, it would bring the river to Albany instead of bringing Albany to the river.
The plan includes a re-imagining of what was once the Albany Basin, once a bustling harbor at the foot of State Street. The Albany Basin was bounded by Quay Street on the west side and an earthen-filled pier, that extended over 4,000 feet in length, on the east. Thousands of vessels passed through the basin’s entry points during the city’s golden age.
The proposal calls for the creation of a short canal that would include an entrance from the Hudson River through the original Lock 1 of the historic Erie Canal located near the Central Warehouse and another just north of the USS Slater. It would include a wider basin in front of the Delaware & Hudson Building, which now serves as the SUNY Administration building.
The Historic Waterfront
Albany’s Hudson River waterfront has been part of an important commercial corridor since the beginning of colonial settlement in the early 1600s. Waterborne transportation and commerce reached its peak after the Erie Canal opened in 1825, with the Albany basin completed shortly thereafter to take advantage of the booming economy.
Albany’s north basin was abandoned by the 1890s, and subsequently filled in due to the effects of silting and sewage. This land was filled for use by the railroads for freight yards and passenger rail service. Passenger rail service to downtown Albany ended in 1968- just as Interstate 787, which was originally envisioned in the early 1950s – was being completed.
The south basin in Albany became home to the Albany Yacht Club, until the construction of the D&H Headquarters building (now the offices of the State University of New York System Administration), which was completed in 1918. The Yacht Club eventually moved across the river to Rensselaer, where it remains today.
As I-787 was being planned, there was interest in creating public parks and marinas along the Albany waterfront to complement the transportation investment. A concept model for a waterfront park was developed with bridges to cross the originally planned at-grade arterial roadway and the railroad tracks.
The Erie Canal Connection
The original Erie Canal began in Albany and extended 363 miles to Buffalo. Lock 1 was located at the site of the weighmaster’s office at the north end of the Albany Basin, and the beginning of the lumber district, stretching north. The weighmaster’s office was where barges were weighed and fees set for transit on the Erie Canal. It’s believed that Lock 1 remains intact underground, between Central Warehouse and I-787.
As commercial usage of the river declined throughout the 20th century, and since the river clean-up began in the 1970s, recreational boating has grown considerably. In 1995, it was estimated that 150,000 pleasure craft passed through the Erie Canal, a number which has increased since then.
New York’s canal system has been in continuous operation since 1825, longer than any other constructed transportation system in North America. The system links the Hudson River with Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie via the Niagara River, allowing boaters to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.
It includes the Erie Canal, which connects the Hudson River with Lake Erie, 338 miles to the west; the Champlain Canal, which connects the tidal portion of the Hudson River with Lake Champlain, 63 miles to the north; the Oswego Canal, which follows the Oswego River from the Erie Canal 23 miles north to Lake Ontario; and the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, which connects the Erie Canal to 92 miles of canalized rivers and lakes, including the Seneca River and Cayuga and Seneca Lakes.
The NYS Canal System is part of what is known as the Great Loop which connects the Great Lakes through Inland Rivers (including the Mississippi) to the Gulf of Mexico, and then either across or around Florida and up the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway to the Hudson River.
Plans to Save the Albany Waterfront
The Delaware and Hudson Building was intended to block the view of the Hudson River from State Street and downtown Albany. The architect, Marcus T. Reynolds, tried initially in 1910 to persuade city officials not to place a building at the foot of the hill. His original plan was rejected.
Since then there have been many plans with greater and lesser merits. Some called for the elevation, sinking and even removal of the major obstacle that prevents the city from reaching the water, I-787.
Construction of Interstate 787 began in the early 1960s on the first segment from I-87 to Bassett Street, which opened to traffic in the mid-1960s. By 1968, construction had begun on I-787 south of Watervliet and the portion of the highway between I-90 and NY 378 (at Menands) was completed by 1971; the section to 23rd Street in Watervliet was open to traffic in 1973.
Over the last 30 years, numerous studies have been made for reconnecting Albany to the Hudson River. For example, in April of 1969, Candeub, Fleissing and Associates developed a plan for then Mayor Erastus Corning which called for the relocation of a major portion of the downtown area to the what is now the Corning Preserve. Their idea would have been achieved by spanning I-787 with a 750 foot wide bridge complete with infrastructure.
Waterfront projects including the Corning Preserve and Jennings Landing were completed in the 1990s. The Hudson Shores Park and the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail were constructed in the early 2010s.
In 2016, New York Assemblymember Patricia Fahy advocated for I-787 to be demolished and replaced with an at-grade highway. In March 2018, a project to convert a little-used I-787 exit ramp into a park called the Albany Skyway was awarded $3.1 million. The half-mile park Albany Skyway, which connects downtown Albany to the Corning Preserve, was officially opened on April 29, 2022.
In May 2019, the I-787/Hudson Waterfront Corridor Study was released. The study was prepared for the Capital District Transportation Committee. The draft report set forth various recommendations for improvements to I-787, including “reconfiguring some interchanges, making the waterfront more accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians, converting from an expressway to a more traditional roadway, and pursuing strategies to reduce travel demand”.
The draft report noted that 88,000 vehicles per day travel into downtown Albany on I-787. It did not recommend significant changes, such as making I-787 into an underground highway or removing it altogether, which would be complicated by railroad tracks in the I-787 median and the flood plain in which they highway and tracks sit. It did include a plan to convert the Interstate to an at-grade urban arterial.
Support Sought
Supporters of the Albany Waterway plan are seeking help as they advocate for the project. They seek assistance in the form of contributions to retain communication, engineering and environmental experts, attendance at public events, and engaging individuals and groups to join Friends of the Albany Waterway.
Albany’s Downtown Neighborhood Association will host a presentation and discussion of the Albany Waterway Canal Project at the Kenmore Ballroom, 76 North Pearl Street, in Albany on February 21st at 6:30 pm.
You can watch a short video about the project, with an indepth presentation and plenty of photos here.
For more information visit the Albany Waterway Canal Project website.
Illustrations, from above: a painting by Len Tantillo which envisions the marina in front of the D&H Building in the evening; Len Tantillo painting of the Albany riverfront in 1852 depicting Steamboat Square at the south end of the Albany Basin; detail from an 1857 map, showing the entrance of the Erie Canal at the north end of Albany (Burt’s Brewery is at about the present site of the Central Warehouse building); the Albany Basin shown on an 1857 city map; the Albany Waterway Canal Project proposed site plan, as first conceived by Len Tantillo and others in 1996.
The idea of replacing Broadway in Albany with an inlet of the Hudson River is simply not realistic. The surface of Broadway is probably 20 feet above sea level. The River is at sea level, with tides as much as 5 feet. This means the water level in the inlet would always be at least 15 feet below Albany sidewalks. The soil below the buildings along Broadway is a thick gray clay. Bringing a channel of tidal river water into the city would likely cause buildings to collapse with foundation failure due to softening of the clay. The historic canal Lock 1 was designed and built as an entrance into the Erie Canal northwestward from the River, never southward to Broadway. The extent of excavation necessary would cost vast destruction of archaeological resources from the earliest days of Dutch Albany. The cost of rescue archaeology alone would be phenomenal. Dutch Albany was never intended to have a Dutch canal. The original Dutch street plan in the oldest part of the city is a rare historical artifact from early Dutch times, while sadly nothing else from the 1600s has survived above ground.
Paul Huey is a retired NYS senior archeologist. He is not an engineer. He is a friend that I’ve known for 40 years. He is very intelligent and thoughtful with a passion for respecting the artifacts of the past. His points, however, are not very strong. First of all he doesn’t understand that our project is conceptual in nature and that we are seeking funds to ascertain the feasibility of its various and distinct options.
I believe the street to water level he mentions is easily overcome with locks. In terms of construction, the canal water would most likely be contained within a non-permeable concrete subgrade structure, not simply an open ditch. The narrow width of the canal does not seem to be considered in his critique. The fact that the north end of our proposal is, in fact, simply a restoration of the Erie Canal lock and basin is not understood. The only two Dutch structures that I know of that would have been in the Broadway path of our project are the Dutch church and an open air market pavilion. We have already considered the idea of making the church a priority feature. The market building, or whatever artifacts remain of it, would be an issue but not an insurmountable one. The harbor proposal for the area in front of the SUNY (D&H) building has been built over many, many times so whatever information about early Albany that may still remain is unknown. You would think an archeologist would be eager to find out what’s there.
Search “A Canal for Albany” on YouTube for a 23 minute video explaining the project in detail.
The opening and closing of locks with high tides as much as every 12 hours would forever be a maintenance and operational nightmare for the City, all year. If water was trapped in the canal at high tides, wouldn’t the water level always be at least 15 feet below Albany sidewalks? The concrete walls of the canal inevitably would also be subject to cracks and leaks.
Deep excavations below State Street and Broadway in the early 1970s have already revealed the presence of a wealth of archaeological features and remains dating back to the Dutch period beneath the streets. Where there are not structural remains, there are deep deposits of trash from the colonial period, an absolutely priceless record of Albany history. Under Broadway in front of the Foley courthouse there is an intact section of 17th-century log corduroy street surface. South of State Street, under the east side of Broadway next to the Plaza, there are the remians of an entire row of Dutch houses, including the house of Pieter Schuyler built n 1671. Those remains were covered years ago when Broadway was widened. The cost of proper archaeology to study such remains would truly be phenomenal.
It might be productive to start thinking about establishing the main part of project on the East side of the Hudson in Rensselaer and somehow tying the two sides together with a covered glass walkway, perhaps with moving sidewalks or even aerial tram cars over the river similar to that used for Rosevelt Island. Not only might this change allow the project to progress, it might also be of major benefit to Rensselaer while also improving the view from Albany.