Gateway Park, North Tonawanda, NPS/Terry Ross Cervi
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Explore: Getting Here
The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor covers 524 miles and encompasses over 200 communities. Travel to the Corridor will vary, depending on where you begin your visit.
 
Visit…by CAR, RAIL, BIKE, BOAT
 
By CAR
The New York State Thruway (I-90) roughly parallels the Erie Canalway route from Albany to Buffalo.  Northway 1-87 provides access from Albany to Whitehall.
 
The best way to explore the Canalway Corridor by car is along state and county roads that hug the water more closely and thread through the hamlets, villages, and cities that grew along the waterways. These include:
 

 
   

- NY Rt. 31 in western New York
- NY Rt. 5 and 5S in the Mohawk Valley

- NY Rt. 481 along the Oswego Canal

- NY Rt. 4 along the Champlain Canal

 
   
...and a host of smaller roads in between.
 
By RAIL
Amtrack provides passenger rail service through the Canalway Corridor with several stops each day.
 
  
 
  • The Maple Leaf Line- provides daily east-west service with stops in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Rome, Utica, Schenectady, and Albany.
     
 
 
  • The Adirondack Line- provides daily service along the Champlain Canal with stops in Fort Edward and Whitehall.
  
   
By BIKE
Bicycling is a popular way to explore and enjoy the Erie Canalway. More than two-thirds of the 350-mile Erie Canalway Trail System is now complete. The paved and stone dust trail follows the former towpath along sections of the original Erie Canal and the "canalized" Seneca and Mohawk Rivers. 
 
These trail segments and other areas of the Canalway Trail System connect with trails leading throughout New York State, providing one of the most extensive trail networks in the country.
 
By BOAT
What better way to explore the Erie Canalway than by boat? The New York State Canal System operates from early May to early November.
 
See also: Things to do/Boating >
  
     
  Mohawk Valley landscape, NPS/ Bart Carig  
   
See the unique sights and hear the great stories of events and people that shaped our history from interpretive guides aboard selected Amtrak weekend trains.
more >
  
     
     
     
     
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