Why Do They Call It "The Dutch Gap?"

Why Do They Call It "The Dutch Gap?"
by Dr. Paul Loatman, City Historian

The last time that I was asked this question, I was leaving a local funeral home. Given the timing and the place of inquiry, the answer did not come quickly to mind, but I promised my interrogator that I would provide the explanation when I could recall it. As so often happens, questions asked of me while on the run slip from memory, but this one came back to me as I was doing some research on Col. Ellsworth recently. As the lawyers would say, although the answer may be a bit late for my original questioner, I submit it forthwith. By the way, as so often happens, finding the solutions to life's little mysteries such as, "Why do they call it 'the Dutch Gap'?" involves a short lesson both in local geography and the history of the Civil War.

Almost from the moment that Col. Ellsworth died in May of 1861, the battle cry of the Union armies was "On To Richmond!" the capital of the Confederacy. As we know now, it would be four long years before Richmond was captured. As the Union armies approached their goal in 1864, they ran into a serious roadblock on the James River about fifteen miles below Richmond: the Dutch Gap. After flowing past the Confederate capital in a relatively straight line, the James made a huge twelve mile oxbow - a meandering detour - before resuming its march to the sea. Boats had to wander twelve miles out of their way to gain a thousand yards as the crow flies. The neck of land circumscribed by the oxbow - the Dutch Gap - became a deadly trap for the Union navy, which lost many ships and sailors to Confederate mines which were laid in the hairpin turn in the river. When the position was finally captured in 1864, the Union forces solved the problem by tunneling a canal straight through the gap, straightening the river, and saving untold numbers of Union soldiers' and sailors' lives.

Meanwhile back in Mechanicville, local residents had their own little "minefield" of sorts to navigate, the railroad crossing at South Main and South Streets. As originally built, the main highway through Mechanicville proceeded south along Main as it does now, but then crossed the tracks (above grade) at South St., and continued toward Waterford along the east side of the Champlain Canal, which flowed through town along the path of present-day Central Avenue. The rail crossing mentioned above was the site of many accidents, a number of them fatal, until 1871. At that time, the Saratoga, Rensselaer, and Whitehall Railway agreed with local lawyer, politician and sometimes publisher of the Mechanicville Weekly Times, J. Frank Terry, that the solution to the problem at hand was similar to that of the Union Amy before Richmond - tunnel your way through the obstacle. In short order, the engineering feat was accomplished and thus was born Mechanicville's version of the 'the Dutch Gap,' and so it is so-called to the present day.

As often happens, a site name continues to be used long after anyone who remembers its derivation is still alive, and no one has any idea about where the idea originated. In this case, a little history and a little geography supply the answer.