DeWitt Clinton — a mayor of New York City, U.S. senator from New York, four-time governor of the state and presidential candidate — probably never really warmed up to Schenectady.

Clinton, the man most responsible for the creation of the Erie Canal, was enjoying his third term as governor in October of 1825 as he traveled all 363 miles of the canal from Buffalo to Albany. Clinton and the Seneca Chief, a small canal boat that carried him on his journey, were being greeted by large, cheering crowds throughout the Mohawk Valley as they moved eastward toward the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers.

Life & Arts

Erie Canal's 200th: Historians on impacts from Fort Plain to Schenectady

By Bill Buell

Life & Arts

Erie Canal's 200th: Canal transformed New York, before it slipped into his

See Full Page