This film places the historic Flight of Five locks on the Erie Canal in Lockport, New York, squarely in the American narrative as a symbol of a young and developing nation.
America’s Stairway airs Monday, October 20 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.
It draws a direct line between the Erie Canal, the Flight of Five, and the birth of American tourism to today’s heritage tourism industry, which is inextricably linked to community-based, grassroots preservation efforts and a community’s sense of place. In doing so, this is a story that resonates beyond time and geographic location.
Photo: South Street Seaport : Painting by William James Bennett, “View of South Street from Maiden Lane”
Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of New York