The canal ride from Rochester to Lockport was something of a lark along the Long Level, a sixty-three mile stretch without locks, but the approach to Lockport came near the end of a long, weary trip across the state and brought the canal’s great challenge before the western terminus in Buffalo: the flight of locks at Lockport. Boat captains often quickened the pace to gain time in case delays arose at the locks, and the ascent up the Escarpment, rising more than sixty feet in five gigantic steps, was an exhilarating experience that even excited captains and crews as they seemed to sail uphill. Lockport itself offered diversions for delayed travelers, who watched the busy locks, went sightseeing, and shopped in a town known for fine shops and hotel accommodations. Its strongest appeal was its frontier look, the kind visitors expected on a journey toward the legendary West. Marquis de Lafayette, born in 1757 and dying in 1834, was a French army captain who sympathized with the American cause during the Revolution, volunteered his services to Congress, became a Major General in the Continental Army, and was regarded in the country as a great hero; when he visited Lockport in June of 1826, he marveled at the engineering genius that produced the twin flight of locks.