Waterways and Rivers of Cohoes

Cohoes had a unique geographical position because two rivers, the Mohawk and the Hudson, converge along its banks.  This fact enabled Cohoes to be the only town in New York State that enabled  both the Eire and the Champlain Canals to run  within its boundary.  The two canals converged on the southern end of Cohoes and ran through Maplewood, Watervelit (West Troy), Menands on down to the city of Albany.  By the time I was young in the 1950s and 1960s, you wouldn't be able to grasp that fact if you walked along the old route.  There was no old route that I could see!  I always wondered why the Marsolais' backyard was so big and went on and on into a child's no man land.  Later I came to understand it was not their backyard we were playing on, it was the old canal route, filled in, in Maplewood.  Now in 2010, the route is long gone covered by Interstate 787 but some vestiges remain and stonework can still be seen along Route 32
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Map of Cohoes and Waterford circa 1899

Here are some images of the canals running through Cohoes...