The Canalway Trail: Randall
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A Remarkable Rock
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Queen of the Erie

The Canalway Trail: Randall, also, A Remarkable Rock, also, Queen of the Erie. . The Canalway Trail: Randall. Welcome to the Canalway Trail, offering hundreds of miles of scenic trails and numerous parks for walking, bicycling, cross-country skiing and other recreational activities. The Canalway Trail parallels the New York State Canal System, comprised of four historic waterways: the Erie, the Champlain, the Oswego and the Cayuga-Seneca Canals. The Canal System spans 524 miles across New York State, linking the Hudson River with Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes, the Niagara River and Lake Erie., Cooperative initiatives between the New York State Canal Corporation, volunteers, local governments, and federal and state agencies have created this great network of trails for public use. When completed, the Canalway Trail will span over 500 miles connecting numerous cities, towns and villages along the Canal System, making it one of the most extensive trail networks in the country., Enjoying the Canalway Trail: Safety Tips The Canalway Trail is intended to accommodate avariety of users. It is important to extend courtesy to all trail users and respect their rights. In order to avoid conflicts, trail protocol dictates that bicyclists of should yield the right-of-way to all trail users and walkers should yiels to equestrians. In addition, please observe the following tips for safe trail use. [Rules were not transcribed], A Remarkable Rock. The search for a pathway inland led canal engineers to this place, "a remarkable rock," wrote DeWitt Clinton in his 1810 journal, where "the river must have burst a passage for itself.", Picturesque to travelers, the geologic outcrops known as Big and Little Noses squeezed the Mohawk River into a narrow gorge. Crews excavated tons of rock during construction of the Erie Canal, and rock slides made maintenance a continual added expense., After 1825 when the Erie Canal opened to boat traffic, countless travelers took note of the rugged terrain of the Mohawk Valley. Frances Trollope, visiting from England, wrote that the canal "cut through much solid rock, and we often passed between magnificent cliffs. The little falls of the Mohawk form a lovely scene; the rocks over which the river runs are most fantastic in form." Auguste Le Vasseur, personal secretary to General Lafayette during a trip along the canal, wrote that "no part of America, or, perhaps, the whole world, contains so many wonders of nature as the State of New York.", [photos:] - Big Nose and Little Nose are seen in this postcard from the early 20th-century. - The Noses, (right) in a postcard looking west, from the north side of the river, about 1910. - The large photo of the Noses (right) is looking east., Clinton's Ditch Although his political opponents described the Erie Canal as folly, little more than a ditch, De Witt Clinton rode the canal to political success. ,br> Early in his career, while mayor of New York City, Clinton decided to support construction of the canal. In making the case for the canal, he described it as "an imperishable cement of connection and an indissoluble bond of union." He knew that it would tap the natural resources of inland New York and tie the west to eastern markets., In 1817, when Clinton ran for governor of the state, he made construction of the canal a major issue. By winning over 43,000 votes to his opponent's 1,479, Clinton received an undeniable mandate from the people, if not from his political foes, to build the canal., In 1821, to justify construction of the Erie Canal, DeWitt Clinton wrote that "this canal ... is without parallel in the history of mankind." "It remains for a free state to create a new era in history, and to erect a work more stupendous, more magnificent, and more beneficial hicherto been achieved by the human race.", Gov. DeWitt Clinton by the painter John Wesley Jarvis, ca. 1816., A packet boat, designed to carry passengers,reigned as the queen of the canal. Pulled by the best horses, it moved faster and claimed the right of way. Furnished like a floating hotel, it cruised quietly through the New York country-side. Passengers often lounged on deck, attentive to warnings of numerous low bridges that could sweep them into the water. Portable furnishings turned the interior into restaurant and bedroom, depending on the time of day., Passengers, however, quickly abandoned the Erie Canal. By the mid-19th century, after construction of rail routes along the Eries path, packet boats built to carry people rather than cargo passed into canal history., Despite this short history of passenger travel, the Erie helped to populate the West. And for two and half decades it carried a steady stream of travelers, some from around the world, to and through small towns and growing cities., George Harvey's 1837 watercolor "Pittsford on the Erie Canal" shows a packet boat filled with tourists and travellers pulled by horse team, a common scene in the early years of the canal., An elegant late 19th-century excursion boat (right), Engine-powered pleasure craft like this one helped make mules teams obsolete., The Kittie West, (ca. 1900, far right), about to embark on a cruise., Famous Travelers During the earliest years of the canal, before railroads provided an option, canal boats offered the best, if not the fastest way to travel inland. Famous travelers on occasion brought local residents to canalside for a glimpse of the renowned., That was certainly the case when General Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, returned to the United States and became one of the first to travel the Erie Canal. In June 1825, before the canal officially opened in October, Lafayette cruised the canal and stopped near here to visit relatives of a Revolutionary War acquaintance., Accounts of the trip describe how residents with torches lined the canal in the evening. Towns erected triumphal arches, held parades, and fired salutes. Three white horses with decorative harness pulled the general's canal boat accompanied by a uniformed, mounted escort., In the 1820s, Lafayette and his entourage toured the Erie Canal to great fanfare ... "another 24 gun salute was fired, and the area's townspeople jammed the bridges and canal boats, cheering loudly and continuously until the Marquis' entourage had passed on its way to Schenectady.", Marquis de Lafayette after a painting published in Paris in 1824.