The Canalway Trail: Greece

The Canalway Trail: Greece. . , Welcome to the Canalway Trail System, 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 the 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 a variety 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 should yield the right-of-way to all trail users andwalkers should yield to equestrians. In addition, please observe the following tips for safe trail use: Rules not transcribed, The "Deep Cut". The Barge Canal skirted Rochester by taking a route south of the 19th century Erie Canal, which required the excavation of a new trench rather than just the widening of the existing canal. The trench, 2.5 miles long, 36 feet deep, and 94 feet across became known as the Rochester "deep cut.", Drills and dynamite were used first to loosen 1.5 million cubie yards of limestone, and then the rock had to be piled to the middle of the cut before being removed. The task was costly and time-consuming. To meet the challenge, Frank Maselli, who had the contract for the job, designed a machine unlike anything used before on the canal, a behemoth nicknamed the "grab machine." In service by 1906, the machine "ate" its way through the rock piles and completed the contract by 1910, considerably ahead of schedule., The Bridge Conveyor or “grab machine was huge, 428 feet end to end (wider than the canal) and [obscure] trusses stood 90 feet high to clear obstructions on either bank. It was powered by electricity and travel the line of the canal to scoop up and deposit broken rock on the north side of the canal. , The machine’s bucket weighed 21 tons empty, was supported by four cables of twisted wire, each 1 ¼ inches in diameter and had jaws 10 fear wide and 20 feet apart when open. , The"grab machine" working the Rochester deep cut about 1908., Canal Boat Mothers: , Canal boating was heavy work, tedious and back-breaking. Owners captained their boats throughout the season, April to December. Most married men didn't want to be away from home for that long, so they brought their families., Richard Garrity, author of Canal Boatman, was raised on such a boat along with six siblings and his mother, who went along to cook, clean, and care for family and crew. He writes "It is hard for me to realize how my mother coped with raising her family on canal boat as long as she did. When we were boating lumber, she cooked for two drivers, a steersman and her own family, which way smaller at that time., When boating gavel, there was only a steersman and our family, which was then much larger. In 1914, the last year she was on the boat, she cooked for the steermen, Father, herself, and seven children. The table had to be set and cleared twice: there wasn't room enough for everyone to eat at the same time. The dishes were washed in a dishpan on the cleared-off table. The water for laundering the clothes had to be dipped up from the canal and heated on a woodburning stove in a copper wash boiler. The laundry was done by hand, by rubbing the clothes on a washboard in a galvanized tub. When ironing, she heated the old-fashioned irons on top of the wood stove. A clothes line. stretched on posts between the [obscured] and the boat's stern cabin, served to dry the clothes. The water to bathe the children had to be heated on the stove. The water for drinking and cooking was dipped into a pail from the barrel on deck, and carried into the cabin. The sleeping accommodations were increased by adding two more double bunks to those already built into the state room, so that it slept eight people instead of four."