I’d like to sail down the Erie Canal from Lake Erie just to see and feel the age of this creation. I’d pick a nice 52 foot Sea Ray with an experienced captain, my wife and a few friends...
“I’d like to sail down the Erie Canal from Lake Erie just to see and feel the age of this creation.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97PI3HOXYZQ
NARROWBOATS - A NOVICES GUIDE TO NARROWBOATING
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrowboat
A narrowboat or narrow boat is a boat of a distinctive design, made to fit the narrow canals of the United Kingdom.
In the context of British Inland Waterways, “narrow boat” refers to the original working boats built in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for carrying goods on the narrow canals (where locks and bridge holes would have a minimum width of 7 feet (2.1 m); some locks on the Shropshire Union are even smaller). The term is extended to modern “narrowboats” used for recreation and more and more as homes, whose design and dimensions are an interpretation of the old boats for modern purposes and modern materials.
"Low Bridge, everybody down..." That was for those flat barges.
Do it before they shut her down.
You can rent a canal boat, and captain it yourself. We have done it twice.
Clearly, they no longer serve for transportation purposes, having been replaced by rail roads and the Great National Road in the mid 1800's. Nevertheless, these canals opened the frontier for commerce and trade and lace the Great Lakes region from NY State through Ohio and westward. As linear parks, surviving stretches in Ohio are being preserved along with their towpath trails, and locks/dams at various points serve as historical markers.
If we really want to provide some continuity with the early days of the Republic, we need to respect and maintain these legacies.