Upstate New York and Canada: "I Have a Mule and Her Name is Sal..."

One of my favorite songs, as a first grader attending the International School in Rangoon, Burma, began, "I have a mule and her name is Sal/ Fifteen years on the Erie Canal."  On September 6, 2024, I finally learned what Sal might have felt like, dragging a boat along the Erie Canal.  Dave and I drove from Goderich, Ontario to our condo in Ellicotville, New York, with a stop en route in Lockport, New York, to take a ride on the Erie Canal.

We began our exploration of the canal at the local museum.  We listened to actors read the journals of the "canalers" who skippered the boats on the canal, as well as the journals of their passengers.

I never realized what a grand project building the Erie Canal was.  More than 50 locks had to be built, along more than 100 miles, to lift boats from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it tied the Midwest to the East, allowing for transfer of grain and other agricultural products from as far west as Ohio and Chicago to the East Coast, and for transfer of East Coast settlers to the West.  There were two tiers of five locks at Lockport, one of the main stations along the Erie Canal.  I also didn't know that Palmyra, where the LDS Church originated, was known as the "Queen City of the Erie Canal."  The Erie Canal was being constructed at the time Joseph Smith lived there.

At the museum, we studied exhibits showing how the locks worked, and the new technology created to operate them.

Our canal boat was narrow and flat, to slide under low bridges. Another line of the song I learned as a first grader was, "Low bridge, everybody down/ Low bridge, for we're coming to a town."
 

We sailed under low bridges on our way to the locks.

We sailed into the locks, which had been expanded to 300 feet long (they were originally 100 feet long).  Gates closed behind us, and the locks filled up with water, lifting the boat.

Once we had been lifted up to the level of the canal on the other side, the lock opened and let us through.

The St. Lawrence Seaway now leads directly into Lake Ontario, so the Erie Canal is no longer used for commercial shipping.  However, small pleasure boats, like this one, still sail the 100+ miles along the Erie Canal, from Buffalo to Albany, New York.

We sailed onward through the canal, under one low bridge after another.  In the old days, a mule trudging along a path by the side of the canal dragged the boats along.  Our boat had its own motor.