The New York State Barge Canal is a successor to the Erie Canal and other canals within New York. Currently, the 525-mile (845 km) Barge Canal system is composed of the Erie Canal, the Oswego Canal, the Cayuga and Seneca Canal, and the Champlain Canal. Other canal systems in the state have been allowed to deteriorate, already having been superseded by other transporation modes, first by the railroads and then by truck transport. Jump to: navigation, search The Erie Canal (later replaced by part of the New York State Barge Canal system, which was renamed the Erie Canal) is a canal in New York State, United States, that runs from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic... The Canal du Midi in Toulouse, France Canals are man-made waterways, usually connecting existing lakes, rivers, or oceans. ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: The Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York City Governor George Pataki (R) Senators Charles Schumer (D) Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 km² or 54,556 square miles (27th)  - Land... The Oswego Canal is a canal in New York, USA. It is now part of the New York Barge Canal. ... The Cayuga and Seneca Canal is a canal in New York, USA. It is now part of the New York Barge Canal. ... The Champlain Canal is a canal in New York, USA. It is now part of the New York Barge Canal. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Jump to: navigation, search The driver of this DAF tractor with an auto-transport semi-trailer prepares to offload Skoda Octavia cars in Cardiff, Wales For further uses of the word truck, see Truck (disambiguation). ...

The Erie Canal allows connects the Hudson River to Lake Erie; the Cayuga-Seneca Canal connects Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake to the Erie Canal; the Oswego Canal connects the Erie Canal to Lake Ontario; and the Champlain Canal connects the Hudson River to Lake Champlain. Jump to: navigation, search View of the Hudson in the 1880s showing Jersey City The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk in Mahican, is a river running mainly through New York State but partly forming the boundary between the states of New York and New Jersey. ... Jump to: navigation, search Lake Erie, looking southward from a high rural bluff near Leamington, Ontario Lake Erie is one of the five large freshwater Great Lakes in North America, among the worlds largest such lakes. ... Seneca Lake is the second longest (at 38 miles (60 km) long) of western New Yorks glacial Finger Lakes and has the largest volume, estimated at 4. ... Cayuga Lake is the longest of western New Yorks glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area. ... Lake Ontario seen from near Wolcott, New York Lake Ontario, bounded on the north by Ontario and on the south by Ontarios Niagara Peninsula and by New York State, is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. ... Landsat photo Lake Champlain, named for the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who encountered it 1609, is a large lake in North America, mostly within the borders of the United States (states of Vermont and New York) but partially situated across the US-Canada border in Quebec. ...

The barge canal was built as an improvement of the old Erie canal system, beginning in 1905 and completed in 1918. It is 12 feet (4 meters) deep, with 57 electrically operated locks, and can accommodate vessels up to 2000 tons (1800 metric tons).

Since the 1970s, the state has ceased modernizing the system due to the shift to truck transport. The canal is preserved primarily for historical and recreational purposes. Today, very few commercial vessels use the canal; it is mainly used by private pleasure boats, although it also serves as a supply of fresh water and as a method of controlling floods. In 2004, the New York State Canal Corporation reported a total of 122,034 recreational lockings on the canal, along with 8,514 tour boat lockings and 7,369 hire boat lockings, and a total of 12,182 tons of cargo valued at approximately $102 million was shipped on the canal system. Jump to: navigation, search The New York State Canal Corporation is a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority. ...

Financial support of the canal system is from tolls collected on the New York State Thruway; it is operated by the Thruway Authority's Canal Recreationway Commission. The application of tolls to support the canal and other non-thruway projects is a matter of controversy. NY Thruway Sign The New York State Thruway (officially the Thomas E. Dewey Thruway) is a limited-access toll highway in the U.S. state of New York. ...

See also

• List of canals in New York

The following canals have existed in New York, USA. Baldwinsville Canal Black River Canal Cayuga and Seneca Canal Champlain Canal Chemung Canal Chenango Canal Chenango Canal Extension City Ship Canal Clark and Skinner Canal Crooked Lake Canal Delaware and Hudson Canal Erie Canal Evans Ship Canal Genesee Valley Canal Gowanus...

External links

• New York State Canals

Pictorial book with historic Champlain Canal photos