The Greatest Mass of Mason Work: Building & Illustrating the Rochester Aqueduct

When it was proposed that an 800-foot-long aqueduct carry the Erie Canal over the Genesee River back in 1819, the canal commissioners boasted that it would be “the greatest mass of mason work contained in any one structure” on the statewide waterway. The men who designed and supervised its construction, were not, however, trained engineers, and instead learned how to build the architectural marvel as they went along. Join Steve Boerner as he discusses how the aqueduct was planned and constructed and the challenges of recreating a historical illustration of the work in progress.

Erie Canal enthusiast Steve Boerner spent most of his career in the newspaper business, and was a photographer and editor with the Democrat and Chronicle before he established his own freelance graphic design business. For the past few years, he has been working on a series of historical illustrations of the early Erie Canal and its construction. This work is documented on his website: 40x4x28.com.

Registration is recommended, but not required.

This is an in-person program that will also be livestreamed at: https://www.youtube.com/@RochesterPublicLibraryNY/streams

This event is presented by the Local History & Genealogy Division.

You may also like the following events from Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County NY:

• Next Thursday, 9th October, 11:00 pm, 10 Years of Daring Heists and Lovable Outcasts in YA Fantasy with Leigh Bardugo in Rochester, New York
• This month, 13th October, 08:30 am, Closed: Indigenous Peoples Day in Rochester
• This month, 16th October, 09:00 am, Central Library Delayed Opening: Staff Development in Rochester