Erie Canal opens today for 202nd navigational season
Photos by Tom Rivers: Canal Corp. employees raise the flags on Thursday at the Ingersoll Street lift bridge in Albion. The flags include the American flag, New York State flag and the Canal Corp. flag.
The Erie Canal officially opened today for its 202nd consecutive navigational season.
The canal is coming off the bicentennial celebration for when the historic waterway was completed in 1825, linking Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany on the Hudson River.
This season the canal will be open to boaters from May 15 to Oct. 14. There will again be no tolls or fees for recreational use of the canal system.
The standard operating hours will be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
There are extended hours until 9 p.m. from May 16 through September 10 at select locks and lift bridges, including the lift bridges in Spencerport, Adams Basin, Brockport, Holley, Hulberton, Albion, Eagle Harbor, Knowlesville, Medina, Middleport, Gasport and Lockport.
Here is the scene last week looking east from the Main Street lift bridge towards the Ingersoll Street lift bridge.
