The Canalway Trail parallels the New York State Canal System, a network of four historic waterways—the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca Canals—that spans 524 miles across New York State and links the Hudson River with Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes, the Niagara River, and Lake Erie. Created through cooperation among the New York State Canal Corporation, volunteers, local governments, and federal and state agencies, the trail system offers hundreds of miles of scenic routes and parks for walking, bicycling, cross-country skiing, and other recreation, and when completed will extend more than 500 miles through numerous cities, towns, and villages. Along the enlarged Erie Canal, including at Castle Creek, aqueducts built at 18 locations carried the canal safely across streams and rivers, where stone masons assembled huge blocks of quarried limestone into piers and arches strong enough to bear water, canal boats and cargo, mules, and crews. These structures not only solved the canal’s practical crossings over hazardous waterways but also became celebrated images in the 19th century, appearing in engravings and on decorative and keepsake objects in American and European markets soon after the canal opened in 1825, including views of the Little Falls aqueduct and designs honoring Governor DeWitt Clinton and Utica.