Erie Canal Lock 9 in New York

The Erie Canal is an artificial waterway that connects the Hudson River to Lake Erie. This historic waterway, first completed in 1825, is one of the most important projects in the development and success of New York and the United States. Then Governor DeWitt Clinton had a great vision to create a man-made waterway connecting Albany to Buffalo which would allow raw materials from the west to be transported cheaply to the populated eastern seaboard. His idea was met with harsh criticism and his opposition dubbed the idea as Clinton's Ditch or Clinton's Folly, but he pressed on. On the fourth of July, 1817, Clinton's Ditch was started in Rome, where there was a long level section to be dug. The Erie Canal was completed from Albany to Buffalo in the fall of 1825 and was an immediate success; it secured New York as the Empire State.

To this day the Erie Canal still serves the boating community in providing safe passage to Upstate New York and beyond. The canal was enlarged and straightened many times and the current version stretches 338 miles from Waterford on the Hudson River to Lake Erie near Buffalo. The canal was originally built as a means for commercial traffic, but it has transformed into a recreational boater's dream. The Erie Canal is lined with dozens of canal towns offering all the services that a transient boater would need.

Today's canal has 34 Locks and is at least 120 feet wide and 12 feet deep. It has a vertical clearance of 21 feet between Waterford and Three Rivers (Oswego Canal junction), and 15.5 feet between the Three Rivers and Lake Erie. The locks are significantly larger than those of 175 years ago at 328 feet long and 45 feet wide, large enough for almost all recreational cruisers as well as large commercial barges to pass through. The largest vessels can be as large as 300 feet long by 43.5 feet wide.

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