Weedsport, NY

Weedsport is a Cayuga County village of 1,788 people at the 2020 census, in the Town of Brutus west of Syracuse. The first settlement dates to 1802, and the village began as Weed's Basin, named for the boat turnaround built by Elihu and Edward Weed along the Erie Canal. Weedsport incorporated in 1831; the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad arrived in 1839, giving the canal port a second transportation line.

The canal no longer runs through the village center; the modern Barge Canal follows the Seneca River about a mile north, while Routes 31 and 34 cross in town and the Thruway is close by at Exit 40. Centreport Aqueduct, older houses, the village office, and the Weedsport Central School District keep the earlier canal-and-school identity visible. The local rivalry with nearby Port Byron began as a fight over canal trade and now survives mostly in sports and local lore. Weedsport is a village that traded a working canal for a road-and-rail map without losing the name that came from the water.