Dream Destinations: New York's Contemporary Canals

Saturday, May 17 at 4 p.m.

Opened to the public with great ceremony in 1825, the 524-mile infamous “Clinton’s Ditch” was considered an engineering marvel and a significant contributor to the formation of the American nation. With little technical knowledge or precedents to guide them, workers surveyed, blasted and dug across the State, constructing 83 locks to carry vessels through variations in water height -- one set rising as high as Niagara Falls. Hosted and narrated by Roy Underhill of PBS’s The Woodwright’s Shop, Dream Destinations: New York's Contemporary Canals airs Saturday, May 17 at 4 p.m. on WXXI-TV 21 (cable 11).

Dream Destinations is a canal-side journey showcasing the historic, cultural, natural and recreational assets that abound. Starting in April 2007, high-definition cameras captured four canals: the Oswego, the Champlain, the Cayuga-Seneca, and the Erie Canal so that you can marvel at the architecture of an aqueduct still standing in Camillus, watch boats plying the waterways in Phoenix and boaters navigating the locks and passing under lift bridges. Big Bridge, built in 1914, is one of the widest bridges in the world.

The Canals continue to support tourism by offering scenic paths for biking, kayaking and boating as well as breathtaking outdoor settings for fishing, festivals and other venues including exploration of canal museums in Syracuse; shopping the “Main Street” of Fairport; stopping in Ithaca to partake in an old-fashioned ice cream parlor; casually dining at a historic tavern in Bushnell Basin; or finding more upscale dining and lodging at historic Geneva on the Lake.

“Of course, I studied and sang about the Erie Canal all through school, but never visited … so, this film was a real eye-opener for me. It is also the first time I have worked with high-definition. The videography is beautiful. It shows off the wonderful scenery and created such a real connection for me with these places. New Yorkers should be so proud of what they have with the Canal: the small towns, the vineyards, the cycling paths … all those things," says host Roy Underhill.

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Pictured: A view of the Erie Canal.
Photo Credit: WCNY