It dates back to 1865 and carried the Erie Canal over the rushing waters of Ganargua Creek (aka Mud Creek) in the Town of Macedon. But it had its day in history, and when the canal expanded, the giant stone structure lost its original purpose. Canal waters were diverted by expanding and refiguring the canal into the current Barge Canal in the early 1900’s, and the old Aqueduct was eventually relegated to part of the Erie Canal Pathway.

Time took a toll and the sometimes flooding waters of Ganargua Creek continued eating away at its west side embankment. In May of 2021, with concerns for its stability and the resulting spillway collapse, the Canal Corporation diverted the Erie Canal Pathway access for walkers and bikers past the structure and onto Route 31.

The plan was to shore up the west embankment, but the Canal Corporation discovered the embankment was being washed away and much worse than originally believed.

It then became a question, should  there be major, costly work to rebuild the Aqueduct embankment, leaving it in place, or should the Aqueduct’s giant stones be carefully numbered, de-constructed, and the structure moved to another location - to  be preserved as an historic relic of the past?

Just as the case with the current Aqueduct structure, the Aldrich Change Bridge served the old canal and was removed in 1915, and placed across Ganargua Creek to provide direct access to the new owner George B. Lent from his barn to his north field. 

The bridge was, in effect, abandoned in the late 1960s or early 1970s when improvements to the county road that separates the barn from the bridge rendered access to the bridge by farm machinery unsafe.

The Town of Macedon obtained custodial ownership of the Aldrich Bridge in 1996 after it had been washed from its abutments in January of 1996 by ice and high water.

Citizen volunteers salvaged the superstructure a year later, dismantled it, and moved it to storage at the Macedon Town Highway Department’s equipment yard in 2017. The slow, but sure restoration and rebuilding project was dedicated in July of 2004 at the Palmyra Aqueduct Park as the Palmyra-Macedon Towpath Trail, part of the planned New York State Heritage Trail system that follows the route of the New York State Barge Canal.

Another factor about how to proceed with the current Aqueduct is consideration of the constant, annual clearing of fallen trees, logs and materials ever flowing east down the  Ganargua Creek and piling up at the Aqueduct’s south entrance. The current spillway, pouring water from the Canal to Ganargua Creek, must also be considered in the Aqueduct plans. 

The Creek combines with the canal waters near the old powerhouse and Lock #29 on the canal.

The two waterways divide into separate entities, both  headed in a Wayne County easterly direction, at the Harrison Spillway in Swifts Landing Park in Palmyra.

According to NYS Canal Corporation spokesperson, Shane Mahar, the Macedon Aqueduct is one of a handful of such structures left throughout the canal system.

New York State Canal Corporation engineers are searching for solutions and future advisory meetings will be held.