Erie Canal

The Erie Canalway Trail is a cycling destination for riders of all abilities. Following one of the world's most famous manmade waterways, it spans New York State between Albany and Buffalo. Whether enjoying a leisurely ride from one village to another, or spending a week completing the entire 360 miles, the Erie Canalway Trail offers endless adventures exploring the charming towns, living history, scenic beauty, and cultural attractions of New York State. The trail route follows both active and historic sections of the Erie Canal. For several decades now, state and local governments have been transforming the old towpath and abandoned rail corridor into a 360-mile multi-use pathway. The guidebook is designed primarily for use by bicyclists, but it is also useful for those planning to enjoy the trail on foot, travelling the canal system by boat, or visiting the Canal corridor's many sites by car. The fifth edition includes information on the statewide 750-mile Empire State Trail, which the Erie Canalway Trail is now part of; updated maps, trail routing, and surface conditions; and an updated, comprehensive listing of attractions, historic sites, visitor centers, public transportation options, easily accessible lodging, bike shops, parking, and other services. This guide is an indispensable resource for dedicated cyclists planning to bike across the state or the casual rider looking to take the family out for a couple of hours.

In his intricately detailed and historically accurate illustrations, Spier brings delightful new dimensions to the popular folk song.

An indispensable resource for dedicated cyclists planning to bike across the state or the casual rider looking to take the family out for a couple of hours. Great for walkers, boaters, and auto travelers, too. The Erie Canalway Trail is a cycling destination for riders of all abilities. Following one of the world’s most famous manmade waterways, it spans New York State between Albany and Buffalo. Whether enjoying a leisurely ride from one village to another, or spending a week completing the entire 360 miles, the Erie Canalway Trail offers endless adventures exploring the charming towns, living history, scenic beauty and cultural attractions of New York State. The trail route follows both active and historic sections of the Erie Canal. For more than thirty years, state and local governments have been transforming the old towpath and abandoned rail corridor into a 360-mile multi-use pathway; by 2015, more than three-quarters of the off-road route was in place. The guidebook is designed primarily for use by bicyclists, but it is also useful for those planning to enjoy the trail on foot, travelling the canal system by boat, or visiting the Canal corridor’s many sites by car. The revised edition includes new inset maps to guide trail users through complicated stretches. All new trail segments developed since 2012 have been added, along with on-road routing updates. The guide’s comprehensive listings of attractions, historic sites, visitor centers, and parks make it an indispensable resource for dedicated cyclists planning to bike across the state or the casual rider looking to take the family out for a couple of hours.

Describes the architecture along the Erie Canal villages.

The Erie Canal was completed in 1825 and became the backbone of an economic and cultural explosion that defined the image of New York. The canal's development spurred successful industry and a booming economy, sparking massive urban growth in an area that was previously virtually unexplored wilderness. People poured west into this new space, drawn by the ability to ship goods along the canal to the Hudson River, New York City, and the world beyond. Erie Canal is a compilation of 200 vintage images from the Erie Canal Museum's documentary collection of New York's canal system. Vintage postcards depict life and industry along the canal, including not only the Erie itself but also the lateral and feeder canals that completed the state-wide system.

An informative essay about a trip across the Erie Canal, complemented by photographs.

The Erie Canal Reader—poems, essays, travelogues, and fiction by major American and British writers—captures the colorful landscape and life along the Erie Canal from its birth in the New York frontier, through its heyday as a passage of culture and commerce, to its present decline into disuse. Part celebration of the men and women who worked its waters and part social observation, these writings by such figures as Basil Hall, Frances Trollope, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and others provide first-hand observations of the canal country and its role in the evolution of American social and economic culture from frontier to industrial prominence. In addition to depictions of canal life, the pieces offer glimpses of early tourist resorts, like Trenton Falls, and observations of religious experiments that made New York's "burned over district" a hotbed of social and political reform. Also included are works by the most prominent Erie Canal writers, Walter D. Edmonds and Samuel Hopkins Adams, whose stories and novels bring a modern sensibility and insight to their reflections on the canal.

Erie Canal takes you on a ride through the heyday of the old Erie Canal. You can swim with the volunteer Life Saving corps as they sharpen their skills, view images of mule-drawn boats wending their way through scenic countryside, and marvel at the engineering of the bridges, aqueducts and locks that facilitated the functioning of the canal.