North Tonawanda, NY

Aug 24, 2007 47447 8:05

As we leave the yacht club we are traveling east but after our first turn we are headed south, away from the U.S. Windsor, Canada is the only Canadian city that is north of the U.S. border. I know it sounds strange but check your maps. (Good trivia question, Kim)

We have been in construction since right after we left the yacht club. Then after we turned onto the QEW there were two accidents in the opposite lanes but all the rubber-neckers in our lanes tied up traffic plus there was construction.

Finally there is construction right before the border. It has taken us 90 minutes to get across the border.

2:30 Tonawanda Island Yacht Club The Connellys and Betty Elmer had made arrangements for us to park at the club for the weekend. We called Betty and then got everything situated.

We got Betty's boat opened up, had some snacks and cocktails, got sprayed by Mark as he washed his boat and then went out for a ride up the Niagara River and a short way up the Erie Canal in North Tonawanda.

North Tonawanda is the start of the Erie Canal and boat traffic is governed by the height of the bridges. Many of the bridges are quite low so the pleasure boats on the canal are more day cruisers than cabin cruisers.

The Erie Canal is now listed as a National Heritage Corridor. The purpose is to help preserve and interpret the historical, natural, scenic, and recreational resources reflecting his national significance and to help foster revitalization of canal-side communities.

North Tonawanda and Tonawanda have concerts along the canal on the weekend and the boats can tie up along side to the canal walls. There are canal side restaurants and businesses and historic sites like the Long Residence.

The Long Residence was built in 1829. It was constructed of virgin black walnut and white oak timber that was hand hewn from trees on the site. The house is Pennsylvania Dutch and the furnishings are of the Empire and Early Victorian periods.

The Corridor includes 524 miles of navigable waterways and included the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca, Oswego and Champlain canals. You have go from Buffalo to Albany and then connect with the Hudson River to reach New York City or north to Lake Champlain and into Canada.

The Erie Canal was built to move goods, grain, iron ore, lumber and other commodities from the Great lakes to the big commercial centers on the east coast. It was begun in 1817 and completed in 1825. Barges were pulled through the canals by mules. The canal was 4 feet deep, and the locks were 90 feet long and 15 feet wide. The locks were manually operated and the lift on the entire canal was 570 feet and was managed with 83 different locks.

Over the years as the barges grew so did the size of the locks so that now they are 18 feet wide, 12 feet deep and can handle barges to 300 feet. He locks are now electrically operated and mainly move pleasure boats.

We return to the club and sit on the back of the boat enjoying the evening with Mark, Kathy, and Betty. The temperature is perfect, the company wonderful and we can watch the boats as they run up and down the Little Niagara River.

Dinner tonight is at the club, it is Italian night, all the pasta has been made by the club member, with green salad and bread. We top off the evening sitting by the water outside talking and making plans for the next day, tubing down the river.

Aug 24, 2007

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