Flume

Flume: Across the Saranac River from the Macdonough Monument, an old factory building that churned out, among other things, beer and cigars, is now waterside apartments with a riverfront sculpture garden. (PO

Those factories, and others along the riverside, were powered by water diverted into a man-made flume that ran on the lake side of the river that was first built in the late 1820s, taking water down to what was known as Clark’s Landing. That flume was later covered, and a portion of Bridge Street ran over the top of it. Until 1903, that is, when according to the Plattsburgh Sentine and Clinton County Farmer, the road above the flume collapsed, nearly swallowing Mrs. Sarah T. Gray. The flume was re-covered, and the road was fixed... for awhile.

Then in 1920, the road collapsed into the flume again, this time swallowing four pedestrians and killing two. One of the witnesses quoted in the Plattsburgh Republican was a Mr. TK Gioiosa, the founder of G&G tires, which survives today.

So think about this when you hear someone complain about the city tearing up Margaret Street.

First collapse documentation:

https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn88075730/1903-05-22/ed-1/seq-5/