The Empire State Trail at Rome

The Empire State Trail at Rome. . , The Oneida Carrying Place, The City of Rome owes its historic importance to its strategic geographic location in the Mohawk Valley, a narrow passage sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains to the north and the Appalachians to the south. This historic portage, used for centuries, closed a gap between the Mohawk River, which flows east to the Hudson River, and Wood Creek, which flows west into Lake Ontario., Known as the Oneida Carrying Place, or the Great Carrying Place, this overland path provided a way for Native Americans and European colonists to carry their boats and cargo overland as they traveled to and from the interior of North America. Fort Newport and Fort Stanwix were among successive forts that were built by the colonists to secure goods carried along this trading route. , The road over the Carrying Place functioned as the superhighway of trade and transportation until the Rome Canal opened in 1797, eliminating the need to portage. In 1817, Rome was the site of the groundbreaking ceremony for the Erie Canal, the commerce and transportation mega-project that transformed New York into the Empire State., The 1758 map at top right shows the road that traveled from the Mohawk River over the Carrying Place to Fort Newport. Fort and waterway labels have been added to the original map for clarity. The illustration at bottom right depicts the Fort Stanwix portage as it would have looked in the 1790s.