Taking a ride down the Erie Canal

^{We decided to take a drive to Locksport, NY to ride through the locks on the Erie Canal.  When we got there about 10:15am, we were told that the next trip was full and we would have to wait until 3pm.  Ed didn't want to wait that long and we were checking out the gift shop and getting ready to leave when the Boat's owner and captain told the clerk that we could get space on the next cruise at 11am with a big group of bicyclist who were on a "Cycle the Erie Canal" ride (400 miles in 8 days).  We bought our tickets and headed out to wait while we watched the very large number of cyclist come into the area.  We got to talking with a few of them and were told that they number about 600, all ages, mostly 50+ from all over the US. They were the reason the 12:30 cruise was booked.}

The End.


The Erie Canal is a canal in New York that originally ran about 363 miles (584 km) from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie. Built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, the canal helped New York eclipse Philadelphia as the largest city and port^[1][2] on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. The canal is now part of the New York State Canal System.
First proposed in 1807, its construction began in 1817. The canal contains 36 locks and a total elevation differential of about 565 feet (172 m). It opened on October 26, 1825.^[2]
In a time when bulk goods were limited to pack animals (an eighth-ton [250 pounds (113 kg)] maximum^[3]), and there were no steamships or railways, water was the most cost-effective way to ship bulk goods. The canal was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard (New York City) and the western interior (Great Lakes) of the United States that did not require portage. It was faster than carts pulled by draft animals, and cut transport costs by about 95%.^{[citation needed]} The canal fostered a population surge in western New York, opened regions farther west to settlement, and helped New York City become the chief port in the United States. It was enlarged between 1834 and 1862. In 1918, the western part of the canal was enlarged to become part of the New York State Barge Canal, which ran parallel to the eastern half and extended to the Hudson.
Today, the Erie Canal is the cross-state east-west route of the New York State Canal System (formerly known as the New York State Barge Canal). In 2000, the United States Congress designated the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor^[4] to recognize the national significance of the canal system as the most successful and influential human-built waterway and one of the most important works of civil engineering and construction in North America.^[4] Mainly used by recreational watercraft since the retirement of the last large commercial ship (rather than boat), the Day Peckinpaugh in 1994, the canal has recently seen a recovery in commercial traffic.^[5]