Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor
Most people know the Erie Canal from the familiar folksong, "Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal." What you may not realize is that although Sal the mule retired long ago, the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca canals remain in service as America's oldest continuously operating canal system and a unique way to travel across the state.
In 1823 the Champlain Canal was the first section of the Erie Canal system to open to traffic. The entire Erie Canal system was completed in 1825. Originally known as Clinton's Ditch, the canal was four feet deep and 40-feet wide, and traversed 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo, the longest artificial waterway and the greatest public works project in North America. The canal put New York on the map as the Empire Statethe leader in population, industry, and economic strength. It transformed New York City into the nation's principal seaport and opened the interior of North America to settlement.ￂ Fueled by its success, enlargement of the canal to seven feet deep and 70-feet wide, began in 1835 to accommodate heavier loads.
In 1903, the NYS Barge Canal System upgraded the Erie, along with the Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca Canals, with some significant differences in routing and technology. Built for self-propelled vessels rather than horse or mule drawn boats, the barge canal enlarged land-cut sections in the western portion of the state, while moving the eastern portion of the canal to the "canalized" Mohawk and Hudson rivers.
A National Heritage Corridor
The U.S. Congress recognized the Erie Canal's significance to our nation by establishing the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor in 2000. The Corridor stretches 524 miles across the full expanse of upstate New York, from Buffalo to Albany and north along the Champlain Canal to Whitehall. It threads 234 diverse communities connected by a waterway that changed not just the landscape of our state, but also our nation and its history. The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor is to help preserve and interpret the historical, natural, scenic, and recreational resources reflecting its national significance and to help foster revitalization of canal-side communities.
The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor is managed by a 27-member, community-based federal commission appointed by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, based primarily upon recommendations of the Governor of New York and the Corridor's Congressional delegation. Commission meetings are held at least quarterly and are open to the public. The National Park Service provides a full-time executive director and professional staff to assist with implementing the Commission's goals of preserving the Erie Canalway Corridor's resources and enhancing educational and recreational opportunities in the corridor's communities. The National Park Service also supports the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor initiatives with its internationally recognized planning and marketing experience.
The American Planning Association (APA) named the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Preservation and Management Plan recipient of the 2008 Daniel Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan, the organization's top national planning award. The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Preservation and Management Plan is recognized as "an innovative approach to preserving the cultural and historic treasures of yesterday's working canal system, but for energizing and enhancing the strength of the communities it connects, providing a much needed model in the growing trend of heritage tourism and historic resources preservation." The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor provides trainings and assistance to communities to assist in implementation of the plan to leverage both new development and adaptive reuse of waterfronts, town centers, parks, and other locations that combine historic, natural, and recreational resources. Visit their website www.eriecanalway.org to learn about the program and current events.
Partners
Lakes to Locks Partners
