Although it is smaller than the Great Lakes of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Superior, or Michigan, Lake Champlain is a large body of fresh water.

The village was at the northern extreme of navigation on the Hudson River, and later became the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal and the southern terminus of the Champlain Canal.

Although the right-of-way of the Champlain Canal through Waterford has largely been abandoned, the New York State Canal System ( formerly called the New York State Barge Canal ) continues to operate the modern successor to the Erie Canal.

The historic Waterford Flight, comprising locks 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the Erie Canal is located here, along with defunct former locks of the Champlain Canal.

Its position at the convergence of both the Erie and Champlain Canals as well as the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers, has contributed to many floods.

The east-west Erie Canal is linked to the north-south Champlain Canal at Waterford.

The Champlain Canal and Lake Champlain form the U. S. portion of the Lakes to Locks Passage, linking with the Hudson River and allowing navigation using the Richelieu between the St. Lawrence River and New York City and the Erie Canal.

* Erie and Champlain, or, Champlain and Plattsburg: an ode

On October 26, 1825 the Erie Canal was completed, forming a continuous water route from the western Great Lakes to the Atlantic and north to Lake Champlain ; it helped the city grow further by increasing river traffic upstate and to the Midwest.

Currently, the 525-mile ( 845 km ) system is composed of the Erie Canal, the Oswego Canal, the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, and the Champlain Canal.

The Erie Canal 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.

In 1903 New York State legislature authorized construction of the " New York State Barge Canal " as the " Improvement of the Erie, the Oswego, the Champlain and the Cayuga and Seneca Canals ".

Individual canals in the New York State Canal System, formerly collectively known as " the Barge Canal ," are now referred to by their original names ( Erie Canal, Oswego Canal, Cayuga-Seneca Canal, and Champlain Canal ).

Oneida Lake three rivers, as well as the Erie and subsequent Barge Canals are in the lake plain.

Born in Bosanquet, Ontario, near the village of Arkona, Ontario, the son of Thirzah Smith ( born 1832 ), herself daughter of a contractor on the Erie and Welland Canals, and Alexander Proctor ( 1822 – alive 1904 ).

A proponent of a national canal system, in 1825 Colden was commissioned by the Common Council of New York City, during the last days of the construction of the Erie Canal, to write his Memoir, Prepared at the Request of a Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York, and Presented to the Mayor of the City, at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals.

The barge and canal system contended favorably with the railways in the early industrial revolution prior to around the 1850s – 1960s for example, the Erie Canal in New York State is credited by economic historians with giving the growth boost needed for New York City to eclipse Philadelphia as America's largest port and city but such canal systems with their locks, need for maintenance and dredging, pumps and sanitary issues were eventually outcompeted in the carriage of high-value items by the railways due to the higher speed, falling costs, and route flexibility of Rail transport.

The first Welland Canal, which opened in 1829 between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, bypassing Niagara Falls and the Lachine Canal ( 1825 ), which allowed ships to skirt the nearly impassable rapids on the St. Lawrence River at Montreal were built for commerce.

In time, projects were devised in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. The modern Erie Canal has 34 locks, which are painted with the blue and gold colors of the New York State Canal System.

Lake Erie was the last of the Great Lakes to be explored by Europeans, since the Iroquois who occupied the Niagara River area were in conflict with the French, and they did not allow explorers or traders to pass through.

British authorities in Canada were nervous about possible expansion by American settlers across Lake Erie, so Colonel Talbot developed the Talbot Trail in 1809 as a way to stimulate settlement to the area ; Talbot recruited settlers from Ireland and Scotland and there are numerous places named after him, such as Port Talbot and the Talbot River and Talbotville in southern Ontario.

" Over 5 million pounds were taken from adjoining Lake Erie in a single year.

At first he opposed Clinton's plan for the Erie Canal, but later supported it when the Bucktails were able to gain a majority in the Erie Canal Commission, and supported a bill that raised money for the canal through state bonds.

The local rivers have shown more improvement though continue to have levels of mercury and other pollutants exceeding EPA limits, an exhaustive study conducted in 2007 by the University of Pittsburgh found that dangerous chemicals in fish catches were twice as high or more on the Canadian side of Lake Erie and six times higher in fish catches far upriver on the Allegheny.

Its difficulties were compounded by the next set of technological changes: the railroad that displaced the Erie Canal as the region's economic engine bypassed Lima completely.

Addressing this contingency, the Ohio delegates included a provision in the draft Ohio constitution that if the trapper's report about Lake Michigan's position were in fact correct, the state boundary line would be angled slightly northeast so as to intersect Lake Erie at the " most northerly cape of the Miami Bay.

" There are jogs in many north-south roads at this line. While the border on land was firmly set in the early-20th century, the two states were still in disagreement on the path of the border to the east, in Lake Erie.

Organized settlement tracts were laid out with portions set aside for the clergy reserves, one exception was the Talbot Settlement on the north shore of Lake Erie, which was set up in 1804.

When counties were established in New York State in 1683 present-day Erie County was Indian territory and was not part of New York.

The first towns formed in present-day Erie County were the Town of Clarence and the Town of Willink.

Since Erie County and its newly-established neighboring counties of Crawford, Mercer, Venango, and Warren were initially unable to sustain themselves, a five-county administrative organization was established at Crawford County's Meadville to temporarily manage government affairs in the region.

By proclamation of the Territorial Secretary and Acting Governor, Winthrop Sargent, on August 15, 1796, the boundaries of Wayne County were declared to begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River then west to Fort Wayne, then to the southernmost point of Lake Michigan and along the western shore north to the territorial boundary in Lake Superior and then along the territorial boundary through Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, and Lake Erie back to the starting point.

In the 1840s, the Wabash and Erie Canal began to operate and provided even broader shipping opportunities, but the canal favored towns which were on the " right side " of the river ; the canal was on the Fountain County side, and towns like Baltimore dwindled as a result.

In 1915 charters were first granted to the councils headquartered in Erie, Wilkes-Barre, and Oil City, Pennsylvania.

They were attempting to build a canal to connect Lake Erie with Lake Michigan.

The Erie Railroad had a railway here running between Little Falls and West Caldwell, but trains were sparsely scheduled and the line was destroyed in the 1970s.

By the late 19th century, shipping lines were using Hoboken as a terminal port, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad ( later the Erie Lackawanna Railroad ) developed a railroad terminal at the waterfront, with the present New Jersey Transit terminal designed by architetct Kenneth Murchison constructed in 1907.

During the 1870s the mills were enormously profitable because of the Erie Canal, which flowed past them at that time.

The Corners was a stopping-place where horses were changed and travelers allowed a brief respite, but since the completion of the Erie Canal, and the still later construction of the New York Central railroad, the town of Sweden ; has gained an ascendency and profited, while Clarkson ; has correspondingly lost in commercial importance.

* The first Welland Canal is begun, partly in response to American initiatives in the Erie Canal.

By his teenage years, he had begun studying mathematics on his own and in 1820 he gained employment initially as a camp cook on the Erie Canal.

Renovation plans for the Erie Insurance Arena have been completed, and the two-year construction project has begun.

The novel opens in 1820, when the construction of the Erie Canal had just begun, but has not reached Palmyra, and most of the town is looking forward to the economic boom the Canal is expected to bring.