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AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DISCOVERY
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TODAY’S ERIE CANAL, A NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR, is once again a major attraction among the many waterways to be discovered and enjoyed in Western New York. To its north is Lake Ontario, a fresh-water Great Lake known for fabulous fishing, sensational sailing, and beautiful beaches. Parallel to Lake Ontario is the 518 mile scenic driving route – the Seaway Trail – one of the first roads in America to be designated as a National Scenic Byway. South of the Erie Canal are the elongated lakes, glacier-formed hills and valleys and fabulous vineyards of the Finger Lakes Region.
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Recreation
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Over 200 years after it first appeared, the Erie Canal encourages a variety of recreational and cultural activities on and along its route. Visitors discover that the Erie Canal is truly a four-season experience, too. Make sure you come equipped with a camera to document the quintessential 100 MUST-SEE MILES ON THE ERIE CANAL! Year-round activities and attractions include: }
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Biking, hiking, roller-blading, jogging and cross-country
skiing along the original Erie Canal towpath
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Canalside festivals and concerts
Nature, wildlife and an ornithologist’s dream — watch
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Narrated cruises on tour boats such as the Sam Patch
for eagles, blue herons, osprey, and bluebirds that settle into trees and canalside birdhouses.
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Shopping at clusters of charming shops
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Culinary experiences at bakeries, restaurants and over
a dozen craft beverage centers including breweries, wineries, distilleries and a meadery.
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Cultural activities such as visiting historic sites, museums,
galleries and participating in creative workshops
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As soon as the water flows from mid-April to mid-October, activities include:
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Geo-caching
(Pittsford) or Colonial Belle (Fairport) Boating, canoeing, kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding bring your own or rent from a local outfitter! Hydro-cycling rentals from Pedal & Paddle in Medina Canal boat rentals for extended cruising from Erie Canal Adventures in Macedon Competitive rowing at Genesee Waterways Center Fishing for bass, pickerel, walleye, pike, catfish, carp, yellow perch, and sunfish
Kiosks and interpretive signs provide interesting stopping points as well as plenty of parks for family picnics along the canal’s shoreline. Yet perhaps most captivating of all are the working canal locks, where people gather to watch a procession of boats rise and fall to the rhythm of carefully controlled waters.
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EVENTS & FESTIVALS
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Park Avenue Summer Art Festival / Rochester Rochester Summer Soul Festival / Rochester Palmyra’s Pirates Festival / Palmyra The Erie Armada / Macedon Newark’s Canal Concert Series / Newark Wayne County Fair / Palmyra
May Day Out with ThomasTM / Medina Rochester Lilac Festival / Rochester Pittsford Paddle and Pour Art & Music Festival / Pittsford Wildlife Festival / Savannah June Holley June Fest / Holley Fairport Canal Days / Fairport Strawberry Festival / Albion Albion’s Canal Concert Series / Albion (June-August) Rochester International Jazz Festival / Rochester Finger Lakes Live Steamers / Clyde
September Orleans County Heritage Festival / Orleans County Clothesline Arts Festival / Rochester Rochester Fringe Festival / Rochester Macedon Center Lumberjack Festival / Macedon Finger Lakes Live Steamers / Clyde Palmyra Canaltown Days / Palmyra Purple Painted Lady’s Annual Art Festival / Macedon
July PTNY Cycle the Canal / Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany Holley’s Canal Concert Series / Holley (July-August) Corn Hill Arts Festival / Rochester Spencerport Canal Days / Spencerport Rochester Pride Festival / Rochester Taste of Wayne County / Newark Lyons Peppermint Days / Lyons Newark’s Canal Concert Series / Newark (July-August)
Cruise the past and unlock the adventure on 100 MUST-SEE MILES ON THE ERIE CANAL as it winds its way through
THREE COUNTIES ◊ 13 TOWNS & VILLAGES ◊ ONE MAJOR CITY
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ouch the past in abandoned canal locks and historic buildings. Cross “bridges” into the present by floating along calm waters and strolling picturesque village streets. Visit sites that have survived unchanged and savor a slower pace while traveling through magnificent scenery. Taste freshly harvested produce at a local farmer’s market. Enjoy the fun of a lively canalside festival or concert!
October Fairport Oktoberfest / Fairport Pumpkinpalooza / Lyons Wayne County Apple Tasting Tour / Wayne County
Since the early 1900s, school children and adults have been singing these words across America and around the world:
ovember Olde Tyme Christmas Fest & Parade of Lights / Medina N The Polar ExpressTM / Medina (November-December)
August Albion’s Summer Fest & Rock the Park / Albion Brockport Summer Arts Festival / Brockport Fairport Music Festival / Fairport
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ecember Candlelight House Tour / Palmyra D ROC Holiday Village / Rochester
Many feats of engineering were needed to conquer major challenges in building the first Erie Canal.
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A t the Great Cayuga Swamp near Clyde, workers found their ditch completely filled back in each day with no trace of their previous labors. The problem was resolved with the use of wooden retaining walls held in place by posts driven so deeply into the ground that the sides of the canal’s trench were at last maintained. A t the deep Irondequoit Creek Valley and its glacier-formed hills, an embankment was created to carry the canal 70 feet above the valley floor by carting dirt in wheelbarrows. This Great Embankment, at what is now known as Bushnell’s Basin, was the largest ever accomplished by man.
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Perhaps the answers lie in the ageless allure of traveling on waterways and the timeless appeal of legends. Whatever the reasons, the Erie Canal continues to fascinate. So if you have enough time, travel its nearly 350-mile route between Albany and Buffalo. But if you only have a few days, or a few hours, to discover its magic, then spend your time along 100 mustsee miles of the Erie Canal as described for you here!
C onstruction of a stone aqueduct spanning more than 800 feet and supported by 11 stone arches was the solution to crossing the roaring Genesee River in Rochester. When completed, visitors from around the world came to view its great expanse. N ear Medina, the Canal Culvert tunnel was created to allow a road to go under the canal, avoiding a very expensive and time consuming construction of not only a bridge but the building up of roadways on both sides.
A LESSON IN HISTORY Before there was an Erie Canal, there were miles of wilderness, swamps, mountains, waterfalls, great inland lakes, an ocean, tribes of Native Americans, and a few intrepid settlers. There was no easy way to move people, raw materials or manufactured goods from the international highway of the Atlantic Ocean to America’s internal thoroughfare—the Great Lakes. That fact changed forever when a man-made channel called the Erie Canal was born on July 4, 1817 as crews of untrained men, with no professional engineers to lead them, began digging at Rome, New York. Working through incredible obstacles and major construction challenges, “Clinton’s Folly” was completed in 1825.
This is your “ticket” for a wonderful voyage—by land and by water—along 100 must-see miles of the Erie Canal. Read about the many attractions, events and experiences these miles have to offer, then enjoy your journey!
www.orleanscountytourism.com 585-589-3100
www.visitrochester.com 800-677-7282
www.waynecountytourism.com 800-527-6510
www.nyscanals.gov 800-4 CANAL 4
www.100MustSeeMiles.com The Erie Canal Culvert in Medina
David Arilotta Photography
® I LOVE NEW YORK is a registered trademark and service mark of the New York State Department of Economic Development; used with permission. Cover photo by Jack Kidd. Village of Pittsford photo by Scott Ellman
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Why has this refrain echoed through decades to a time when people can travel millions of miles through space? Why does “Clinton’s Big Ditch” still intrigue us?
FEATS OF ENGINEERING }
“I’ve got an old mule and her name is Sal, Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal. She’s a good old worker and a good old pal, Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.”
www.100MustSeeMiles.com
First envisioned by Jesse Hawley, a miller in the town of Geneva, the idea of such a project was deemed “little short of madness” by President Thomas Jefferson. Nonetheless, the concept of a canal stretching across the state of New York became a reality with the support of DeWitt Clinton, mayor of New York City
at that time. Despite ridicule of his canal-building dreams, Clinton became governor of the state in 1817, got funding quickly approved by the state’s Legislature, and construction of the most famous canal in America began. When if officially opened on October 26, 1825, the Erie Canal was acclaimed as the greatest engineering marvel in the world:
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363 miles long
40 feet wide
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4 feet deep
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18 aqueducts to carry its waters across rivers, and 83 locks to raise and lower boats a total of 682 vertical feet from end to end At a cost of just over $7,000,000
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BENEFITS The benefits from this new route to the western frontier were both immediate and dramatic. Travel time was cut in half and shipping costs reduced by 94%! The Erie Canal also caused the first great westward movement of American settlers, turned Rochester into a “boom town”, and made New York City the busiest port in the United States.
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS Between 1836 and 1862, the canal was rebuilt to make it wider (70 feet) and deeper (seven feet) with 72 double locks and minor course changes to increase the speed of traversing it. From 1905 to 1918, an entirely new and enlarged canal system was created to accommodate even larger barges. Major course changes were made and most of the original man-made channel was abandoned as rivers that originally had been avoided were “canalized.” One hundred years after its creation, the Erie Canal evolved in the shape you see today:
125 feet wide
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12 feet deep
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35 locks
It also became part of a larger New York State Canal System with four connected canals and natural waterways covering 524 miles. Although its path and shape have been altered through the years, the wonder of that very first Erie Canal has never been forgotten. Visitors by the thousands continue to travel a tranquil route as this fascinating ribbon of water threads its way through a 21st century, while still proudly retaining traces of its 19th-century origination.