Erie Canal with Blount Small Ship Adventures
By Ted Scull.
In this installment, it’s all about the Erie Canal — an integral part of America’s western expansion and of incalculable value to New York City.
Low bridge ahead on the Erie Canal.
Residing in New York all my working life, I cannot get enough of the region’s history, development and major events. As an aside, I incorporate research into talks for general audiences and special interest groups. For purposes of QuirkyCruise.com, I first turn to big draws in my own back yard that you too might wish to experience some day, or maybe already have.
A few years ago, I took a cotton to a Blount Small Ship Adventures’ cruise that no other line can do, travel a section of the Erie Canal as part of a much longer, complex inland water route linking the Great Lakes and New York.
The Erie Canal, dug east-west across New York State between Albany and Buffalo, connected by water the growing Port of New York with much of the rest of the still developing U.S. Railroads and paved highways were still in the future.
At the time, Boston and Philadelphia handled more trade than New York, but these cities’ fathers could not solve getting over the mountain barriers to the Midwest that New York was about to accomplish with the Erie Canal’s completion in 1825. Almost immediately, New York’s fortunes took off to become the fastest growing port and city in the country.
Approaching a lock on the Erie Canal. * Photo: Ted Scull
That slim little waterway was later enlarged and became what we can travel along today at a slow jogging pace. But you must choose a specifically-designed low-rise canal boat, in my case the GRANDE MARINER.
The Grande Mariner. * Photo: Blount Small Ship Adventures
Bingo, you can experience a low bridge on the Erie Canal made famous by “Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal,” a song written by Thomas Allen in 1905. Clear the top deck and lower the pilot house to allow the boat to slide under bridges with inches to spare. Many were built by the new enemy, the railroads, to impede canal traffic. In fact, Blount’s present pair cannot travel the western end of the canal because of even lower clearances.
Approaching the enemy, a railroad bridge. * Photo: Ted Scull
Just west of Troy, a former industrial powerhouse a few miles north of Albany, the GRANDE MARINER drops down via a flight of canal locks to reach the lower level of the Hudson River — just 140 miles downriver to New York City. No natural waterway in the US combines so many scenic surprises, natural wonders, and stately homes that inspired the Hudson River School of painters.
For the next two days, be dazzled by the Catskill Mountains at sunset, the Hudson dramatically narrowing at Bear Mountain, Storm King’s massive headland thrusting itself into the river, the vertical drop of the Palisades, lighthouses dotting the shallow bits to warn of dangers, and a slew of historic houses with magnificent Hudson River views.
Stately mansion with a Hudson River view. * Photo: Ted Scull
Few know that you cannot drive along the Hudson to experience all these as parallel roads follow the river for just a few miles at a time. The water-level train route is second best though you clearly see only the western side, while by boat you see America’s Rhine the way it was meant to be seen.
The icing on the cake is sliding under the George Washington Bridge and sailing past Manhattan. Some Blount cruises end at the West Side’s historic Chelsea Piers, while others continue around The Battery and head up the East River to Long Island Sound and New England.
When I have stayed aboard, I get to pass my apartment just two blocks inland. Let me know when you are passing, and if I am in residence, I will come down and give you a wave from the riverside promenade.
How about a wave from above? * Photo: Ted Scull
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HEIDI SARNA
