From Albany to Buffalo, from 1825 till today, the Erie Canal has made American history. With Tom Grasso, President of the NY State Canal Society, we tour the Canal, past and present. Before railroads, waterways were the best way to travel. At Fort Edward on the Hudson, and at Whitehall on Lake Champlain, Tom explains the role of waterways in developing the American continent. Overlooking the 'Noses' of the Mohawk, the only water route through the coastal mountains between Canada and Alabama, we can see for ourselves why the Erie Canal became the Gateway to the West, and made New York the Empire State. With Tom, we visit the Ft. Hunter guard lock on the Original Erie, then the Cohoes, Macedon, and Yankee Hill locks and the Schoharie Creek aqueduct on the Enlarged Erie. As Ted Curtis pilots the Sam Patch tour barge, Pete Seeger sings “15 Miles on the Erie Canal”. Musician George Ward acompanies Peter Spier's delightful drawings of life on the Enlarged Erie, and we see the only mule-drawn barge on the system, Miss Apple Grove. From the magnificent Lock 17 at Little Falls, to the Great Embankment and Lockport, Tom travels the 1918 Barge Canal - the third Erie Canal - with Peter Wiles on his yacht Trident, and with Dan Wiles on the Emita tour boat. As we explore the beauty and history of this great artifical river, we share its rebirth as an attraction for visitors from around the world.

Forms: Documentary
Genres: Educational