The Erie Canal
The Erie Canal and the villages along it are being rediscovered for their scenic beauty and rich role in the history of New York State. The continuous part of the Erie Canal Heritage Trail starts in the Town of Lockport, and goes through the Town of Royalton in Niagara County. The trails are used for hiking, biking, cross-country skiing, and in some sections, for horseback riding. No motor vehicles are allowed.
Lockport Locks & Erie Canal Cruises
The Erie canal was hand-dug to connect the Hudson and the Niagara rivers. Experience a unique 2-hour cruise which includes “locking through” and being raised the 49 foot elevation of the Niagara Escarpment. Experience this AAA GEM attraction featured on the History Channel. Enjoy a unique narrated 2-hour cruise past many historic sights and five original locks. Cruise includes being raised and lowered 50 feet in the only double set of locks on the Erie Canal. Only 30 minutes from Niagara Falls and Buffalo NY. Banquet and meeting rooms open all year. Seasonal cruises.Lockport Cave & Underground Boat Ride
A historical, fun, guided 70-minute tour through America’s past, viewing the Erie Canal Locks, walking through a 1600 foot water-power tunnel blasted out of solid rock and viewing geologic cave formations whilst riding in an underground boat. Daily tours 10 am - 5 pm. Seasonal. Admission. Erie Canal Discovery Center
The Erie Canal Discovery Center is a new state-of-the-art interpretive center for the Erie Canal, and particularly the role that Lockport, NY played in the history of the Erie Canal. We feature the 13' x 20' Raphael Beck mural, "The Opening of the Erie Canal, October 26, 1825." This beautiful floor to ceiling mural depicts the celebration surrounding then NY Governor Dewitt Clinton's ceremonial first passage through the now famous "Flight of Five" locks in Lockport to officially open the Erie Canal.Individuals from the painting "come to life" with the assistance of virtual-reality, through computer kiosks in the Center. A multidimensional orientation film transports the visitor back in time on board a recreation of the packet boat Western Comet.
Additional audiovisual stations such as the "Hard Rock Canal" and "Work the Lock" allow guests the hands-on opportunity to view the dolomite rock wall in Lockport and to navigate a model ship through an actual working series of locks.
The life and times of "canawlers," people who lived and worked on the canal, as well as "canal kids," are depicted in exhibits that feature the latest technology in communication "sound-sticks."
The National Park Service rounds out the many displays with their own description of the National Heritage Corridor.
A Brief History - from NYS Canals
Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was the engineering marvel of the 19th Century. When the planning for what many derided as “Clinton’s Folly” began, there was not a single school of engineering in the United States. With the exception of a few places where black powder was used to blast through rock formations, all 363 miles were built by the muscle power of men and horses.
The Erie Canal proved to be the key that unlocked an enormous series of social and economic changes in the young nation. The Canal spurred the first great westward movement of American settlers, gave access to the rich land and resources west of the Appalachians and made New York the preeminent commercial city in the United States. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Allegheny Mountains were the Western Frontier. The Northwest Territories that would later become Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio were rich in timber, minerals, and fertile land for farming. It took weeks to reach these precious resources. Travelers were faced with rutted turnpike roads that baked to hardness in the summer sun. In the winter, the roads dissolved in a sea of mud.
Then - New York Governor DeWitt Clinton envisioned a better way: a Canal from Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Erie to Albany on the upper Hudson River, a distance of almost 400 miles.
In 1817, Clinton convinced the State legislature to authorize $7 million for construction of a Canal 363 miles long, 40 feet wide and four feet deep.
In 1825, Governor Dewitt Clinton officially opened the Erie Canal as he sailed the packet boat Seneca Chief along the Canal from Buffalo to Albany. After traveling from the mouth of the Erie to New York City, he emptied two casks of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean, celebrating the first connection of waters from East to West in the ceremonial “Marriage of the Waters.”
Between 1835 and the turn of the century, this network of Canals was enlarged twice to accommodate heavier traffic. Between 1905 and 1918, the Canals were enlarged again. This time, in order to accommodate much larger barges, the engineers decided to abandon much of the original man-made channel and use new techniques to “Canalize” the rivers that the canal had been constructed to avoid the Mohawk, Oswego, Seneca, Clyde and Oneida Lake. A uniform channel was dredged; dams were built to create long, navigable pools, and locks were built adjacent to the dams to allow the barges to pass from one pool to the next. When it opened in 1918, the whole system was renamed the New York State Barge Canal.
Today, the waterway network has been renamed again. As the New York State Canal System, it is enjoying a rebirth as a recreational and historic resource.
In 2001, designated as the nation’s 23rd National Heritage Corridor, the New York State Canal System joined the ranks of America’s most treasured historical resources. Comprised of four Canals, the Canal System is historically significant for the many contributions it has made to establish New York State as an international center of commerce and finance.
