Abutment	The point where a canal structure is built into an existing hillside or stream bank to begin either an aqueduct or a culvert. Parts of an abutment are the breast and the wing walls.
	Aqueduct	A structure designed to facilitate the travel over an existing river, stream or valley. An aqueduct was mostly built of wood or stone and carried the canal with a towpath over these obstructions.
	Balance Beam	A wooden timber attached to the lock gates. One on each side. These were used by the lock keeper to open and close the gates.
	Basin	An area where the canal widens allowing for passing of boats and economic development such as mills, canal warehouses. Often the site of "Canal Towns".
	Berm	The opposite bank to the towpath.
	Boaters	A term used by canallers for themselves.
	Breakwater	Designed to protect the canal from destructive forces such as floods from lakes and rivers.
	Breast	The notched area of an abutment onto which the aqueduct or culvert flume construction was fitted. It helped support the weight of the flume.
	Bulkhead	The head of a breakwater, helping to protect an area from water damage.
	Buttress	An area of the lock wall thickened and strengthened where the lock gates were installed and operated.
	Chain Measure	A linear measurement used in surveying. A chain was equal to 66 feet. A tunnel was measured in chains because instead of being towed by the mule team the boat was pulled along on a chain.
	Chamber	The portion of the lock between the gates. Standard measurements for a chamber were 15 feet wide by 90 feet long. Depending on the depth of the chamber it would hold 100,000 to 120,000 gallons of water.
	Clinton's Ditch	A nickname for the Ohio & Erie Canal.
	Culvert	A smaller structure than the aqueduct it served a similar purpose, often constructed like a bridge of stone with arches.
	Deep Cut	Often used in areas where a canal needed to traverse a hill or ridge. A large area was blasted with gunpowder. It was cheaper than building a lock system through the area. Debris from this construction was often used elsewhere in the canal system.
	Dressed Stone	Limestone or Sandstone, carefully processed in a quarry, often very close to the canal but usually within a 20 mile radius. These stones were 1 to 1 1/2 feet thick, 2 or 3 feet deep, 3 to 8 feet long and weighed 1 to 1 1/2 tons.
	Feeder	A structure or stream that fed water either from lakes or rivers into the canal to maintain the required or desired water level. A feeder lock often helped control the entry of the water into the canal and prevented canal water from backing up or leaking out of the canal.
	Flooring	The top layer of wood in the bottom of the lock.
	Flume	The canal channel maintained and supported by an aqueduct or culvert.
	Intermediate Pier	A structure built around the aqueduct pillars to protect them from flooding or ice jams.
	Lay To	A stop when the canal boat became stuck in the canal. If a canal boat was stuck in the mud it was termed "mudlarked".
	Lock	The main structure of a canal it enabled the water level of the canal to be adjusted to the surrounding land elevation. Often called "Lift Locks" they could be built to raise the boats varying depths. One of the highest was a lift of 17 feet. Standard Ohio canal lengths were 120 feet, but also varied. If land elevation changed an excessive amount within a short distance a series of locks would be built in a row to navigate the change in elevation.
	Lock Gates	Gates at each end of a lock that with the help of wickets and wrenches, enabled water to move the boats through the canal. Through the lock a controlled current was created as part of the "locking-through" process. The gates formed a "V" pointing upstream. Usually each gate was 8 1/2 feet long. It's depth was greater in the chambers lower end. Each gate folded into a recess built into the lock walls when open.
	Lock Keeper	Often also called the Lock Master or Lock Tender each was the term for the person opening and closing the lock gates.
	Lock Wall Hangers	Metal objects approximately three feet long and half inch thick. These were incorporated into some lock chamber walls to help secure the lock planking and forming a watertight chamber. The planks were held in place with metal wedges driven through holes at the end of each hanger.
	Lock Wrench	A curved metal device attached to a rod running the height of the lock gate. It was used to control the sluice gate or wicket.
	Long Level	A length of canal free of locks, often at the summit of a canal.
	Millrace	A channel where the some canal water overflow or river rapids were diverted to run a mill water wheel.
	Milltail	The water left over after the mill wheel had been turned, usually returned to the canal or river.
	Mitre sill	The wooden threshold upon which each set of lock gates would fit n the "V" formation.
	Penstock	A millrace.
	Pivot	A metal device like a ballbearing at the base of each lock gate on which the lock gates could turn more easily.
	Planking	The middle layer of wood making up the lock floor.
	Prism	The configuration of the canal ditch. Dimensions varied but averaged between 5 feet deep, 40 to 60 feet wide at the water line, and 26 to 28 feet at the bottom of the ditch.
	Quarry	A site where limestone or sandstone was dug to be used on the canal. Often very close along the canal route.
	Reservoirs	Man-made lakes to store water at the summit levels of canals.
	Rip-Rapping	Stones used of varying sizes placed in the canal prisms to prevent erosion of the canal banks. Erosion would create sandbars around the lock gates and in the chambers jamming the gates or stranding a boat on the obstruction.
	Section	A length of canal transformed from virgin forest or virgin swamp into a canal prism. It was possible to build a one-mile prism in 4 1/2 days.
	Sidecut	A lateral canal which connected the main part of the channel to a nearby stream or canal.
	Slackwater	Where a portion of a stream was dammed so that it could act as a canal. Slackwater was used where a canal had to cross a river, stream or lake. If navigation across a slackwater area would be difficult since canal boats had no form of propulsion an aqueduct over the obstruction was often built. In other areas of slackwater all that would be needed was a towpath built across the top of the dam.
	Sluice Gate	A mechanism in the bottom of the canal chamber that adjusted the water level before the gates could be opened. Also called a Wicket. It was opened by turning the metal lock-wrench at the top of the lock. This enabled water to enter through the lock gates. When the water was level on both sides of the gates the sluice gate was closed and the lock gates opened.
	Snubbing	Used to control the boats in the "locking-through" process. Taking many forms snubbing could be large wooden posts along the lock walls or metal posts and rings to which the boats were tied
	Tailrace	see Milltail
	Timbers	White Oak beams making up the lowest layer of the lock bottom.
	Toll Collector	The person who collected the fees for travelling the canal. It cost $17 for anyone over 12 years of age to travel the full length of the Ohio & Erie Canal. It was 5c for each "locking-through" process. Cargo was subject to a toll.
	Toll House	This was the place where tolls were paid, spaced along a canal
	Towline	A rope used to link the draft animals to the canal boat. Animals either pulled individually, in tandem ( one behind the other ), or as a team ( side by side ). In a lock this rope was used to tie the boat to the snubbing posts. A towline was kept as wet as possible to allow it to be dropped quickly to the bottom of the canal so that other boats could cross over them when they passed on the canal.
	Towpath	A ten foot wide walkway for both canal workers and animals built on one side of the canal bank.
	Tunnel	A tunnel often built through a hillside to maintain the long level at a canal summit and reduce the need for lockage. There were three in Ohio. Two on the Sandy & Beaver Canal and one on the Cincinnati & Whitewater.
	Waste Weir	This helped remove excess water from the canal ditch. Also called an overflow
	Weigh Lock	A weigh lock is thought to be the fore-runner of the truck weigh- stations that we have today . The lock was designed with a cradle and attached to scales to check the weight of the cargo and obtain correct toll fees. See a "Weigh-Lock".
	Weigh Master	The operator of a weigh-lock. He knew the empty weight of the boats. He would subtract these from the full weights of the boats to get an accurate cargo weight.
	Wicket	See Sluice Gate
	Wing Walls	Usually a "V" shaped formation divided by an abutment breast . The wing wall protested the abutment by deflecting water away. Upstream wing walls were always larger than downstream wing walls. Locks also had wing walls.