Rome NY

Rome is where it all started

Locking through continued: I forgot to mention that I did grab the pole on the way down and got it back on the boat.
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On July 4, 1817 construction on the Erie Canal began in Rome. The Erie Canal reaches a summit in Rome, reaching 420 feet.

The first cheese factory in the United States built in Rome in 1851 (I would have expected Wisconsin to hold that distinction). Revere Copper Products, Inc., founded in Rome between 1928 and 1929, is one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the United States.

Rome is the second-largest city by area in New York State (75.7 square miles).

711 West Liberty Street, Rome NY

Like Waterford, Rome Welcomes travelers on the Erie Canal.  The first week of August is Canal Days in Rome.

Griffiss Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force installation, located in Rome, New York. The Base closed in September 1995, by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. It is now home to the Griffiss Business and Technology Park. My dad was stationed at Griffiss when my older brother was born.

An Interesting side note we learned:
Jesse Hawley a flour merchant in western New York. He collected wheat in Geneva and had it milled in Seneca Falls. Hawley's investments were based on the hopes that the General Schuyler's Western Inland Lock Navigation Company would continue its river improvements to Seneca Falls, which would reduce Hawley's costs of shipping the flour to the cities on the Atlantic. Unfortunately for Hawley, the Western Company halted progress on continued improvements to the rivers after Schuyler's death in 1804. Struggling to receive shipments and make deliveries over the wretched roadways of the era, Hawley imagined the canal as early as 1805.  Eventually, in 1807, Hawley's difficulties in securing reasonably priced transportation drove him into debtors' prison for twenty months. While in prison, writing under the name "Hercules", he published fourteen essays on the idea of the canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie; they appeared in the Genesee Messenger.  These essays helped inspire the development of the canal.