The Canalway Trail follows 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 offers hundreds of miles for walking, bicycling, cross-country skiing, and other recreation and, when completed, will extend over 500 miles through numerous canal towns and cities. At this place, the geologic outcrops called Big and Little Noses narrowed the Mohawk River into a gorge that drew canal engineers searching for an inland route, and crews cut through tons of rock to build the Erie Canal, though rock slides made maintenance costly. After the canal opened to boat traffic in 1825, travelers remarked on the rugged scenery of the Mohawk Valley. DeWitt Clinton, an early and forceful advocate of canal construction, supported the project while mayor of New York City, made it a central issue in his successful 1817 campaign for governor, and defended it as a transformative work that would connect inland resources and western regions to eastern markets. Passenger packet boats, pulled by horses and fitted for comfort, became the canal’s “queen,” carrying travelers quietly through the countryside until railroads along the Erie’s path caused canal passenger service to fade by the mid-19th century, though for two and a half decades the Erie carried a steady stream of people westward and through growing towns and cities. Among the most celebrated early travelers was General Lafayette, who in June 1825 journeyed on the canal before its official October opening; residents lined the canal with torches, towns raised triumphal arches, held parades, fired salutes, and greeted his horse-drawn boat with great fanfare as he traveled inland.