The Erie Canal is America's most famous and influential man-made waterway, distinguished by the locks and low bridges of the New York State Canal System and by towns and cities whose watery front doors still give way to lively Main Streets. More than 500 miles of historic waterways and trails stretch across the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, where conditions can vary greatly from one end to the other, from lake effect snows in winter between Buffalo and Syracuse to flurries by Utica and cloudy skies in Albany, and from clearing skies in Rochester to storms moving on toward Saratoga Springs.