|
SCOW Archives
176TH
YEAR OF INLAND
NAVIGATION FOR NEW
YORK'S CANAL SYSTEM
CANAL OPENS FOR ITS 176th
YEAR OF NAVIGATION
The New York State Canal System opened the first
Monday in May for its 176th year of continuous navigation, replete with
its newly opened Visitor's Center at Waterford and three others
scheduled to follow shortly.
Although today's recreational waterway bears
little resemblance to the 20 foot-wide, four feet deep "ditch"
that Governor DeWitt Clinton started at Rome on July 4, 1817, the boats
that cruise its waters today, are very much the descendants of the mule
powered vessels of a century and three quarters ago.
While the original canal opened the West to
settlement, today's waterway is facilitating an economic resurgence for
many of the upstate New York communities left behind in the good times
of the late 1990's.
The New York State Canal System includes the
Erie Canal linking the Hudson River to Lake Erie, the Champlain Canal
linking the Hudson River to Lake Champlain, the Oswego Canal linking the
Erie Canal to Lake Ontario and the Cayuga-Seneca Canals which link
several of the Finger Lakes to the Erie.
This interconnected system of inland waterways has no equivalent
anywhere in the United States. It
does, however, have counterparts in Europe.
A system of canals in Canada, also connecting to the Great Lakes,
considerably extends the reach of inland navigation.
The State Canal system, designed for commercial
purposes, has in recent decades become a recreationway.
New York State Canal Corporation statistics show an average of
300,000 passages through the system’s locks in 1999-2000. The vast majority of these were pleasure boaters.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors attended canalside festivals
from Tonawanda to Waterford. In addition, many tens of thousands of visitors jogged,
sunbathed, walked and biked on paths being rehabilitated along the
canal. Additional funding
to complete this 348-mile Canalway has been proposed.
Recreational vessels using the canal need to
purchase a two-day pass or seasonal permit.
Prices vary with increasing boat length.
For more information contact www.canals.state.ny.us. |
