The legally-mandated inspection of the New York State Canal system is underway. Officials boarded the Tug Syracuse at Canalside in downtown Buffalo Tuesday morning to begin the first leg of the waterborne tour.
Canal Corporation Director Brian Stratton says engineers will be checking the locks and other canal structures for maintenance and safety issues. Stratton says the tour is also an opportunity to give stakeholders along the canal a different perspective of their community.
"You really get a sense of what's going on and what is possible. Half of the things that are out there along the canal you would not see otherwise unless you were out along the water. We have major development projects, not only here in Buffalo, but in Syracuse [and] Rochester," Stratton said.
The tradition of inspecting the state canal dates to 1825 when Governor DeWitt Clinton departed Buffalo aboard the Seneca Chief to mark the opening of the Erie Canal.
The system covers 524 miles and links the Hudson River, Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes, the Niagara River and Lake Erie.