History And Happenings At The Erie Canal Museum

We may be a year early for the Erie Canal Bicentennial celebration, but it’s never too early to explore the history and happenings of New York’s “Grand Canal.” Do you know these facts about its history in Greater Western New York? Click the link below for this week’s episode of The State of Greater Western New York Report to see how you score on this trivia test.

Derrick Pratt, Director of Education and Public Programs at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, NY joins us for this show. He begins by telling us a little bit about the history of the museum and the historic building in which it is located. He then reveals how (and why) the canal was built “inside out” – staring from the center and then working its way to both ends. He also takes a deeper dive into some of the more historical aspects of the western half of the Canal. You will learn about the competition between Buffalo and Black Rock (and maybe Dunkirk) to be site of the western terminus. You will discover how the “five flights” of Lockport were blown out of solid rock before the invention of dynamite. Finally, he explains why the aqueduct over the Genessee River in Rochester had to be rebuilt.

In the show’s second half, BPratt details what the museum is doing this summer, from Bike rides to walks to a special exhibit on – of all things – trains. He wraps up the show by retelling the hows and whys of the canal’s evolution from primarily a commercial highway to a recreational venue.

Our guest happily answered questions from the live audience. In fact, these are probably some of the same questions you had. Would you like to be a live audience member so you can ask our guests questions? Click here to join the growing number of members who share your feelings on StateOf.GreaterWesternNewYork.com because then we can automatically send you the link to watch our shows live.

Theme music by “mansardian” courtesy of FreeSound.org under Creative Commons License Attribution 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/