The Canalway Trail System offers hundreds of miles of scenic trails and numerous parks for walking, bicycling, cross country skiing, and other recreation along the New York State Canal System, whose four historic waterways are the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca Canals. Spanning 524 miles across New York State, the Canal System links the Hudson River with Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes, the Niagara River, and Lake Erie. Cooperative efforts by the New York State Canal Corporation, volunteers, local governments, and federal and state agencies created this public trail network, which when completed will extend more than 500 miles and connect many cities, towns, and villages. Along the Erie Canal, businesses often clustered near locks, toll collectors offices, basins, and city bridges because canal travelers and boat workers needed food, drink, and services. In 1843, one traveler reported that nearly every lock had 3 to 6 taverns and stores serving the traveling public, with signs advertising bread, milk, groceries, cider, beer, rum, and whiskey every few miles. Freighters and packer boats made frequent stops, helping hamlets such as Adams Basin develop. A building across the street, constructed around 1825 when the original Erie Canal was completed, first served as a general store providing food, drink, and mail service to canal travelers, later housed a tavern, and for most of its existence has functioned as an inn.
