Buffalo invites the world’s canal community to New York State’s ‘Queen City’ in September 2025 to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Erie Canal.
New York’s ‘Grand Canal’ provided the first all-water link between the Atlantic Ocean and the upper Great Lakes, altering patterns of settlement, agriculture, and industrialization throughout eastern North America. The Erie Canal remains in service today and endures as a testament to the vision and imagination of New Yorkers who dared to dream that a narrow ribbon of waterway, carved through 363 miles (584km) of forests and wetlands could transform their state and a young nation.
The ‘bicentennial’ conference is co-hosted by the City of Buffalo, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, and the New York State Canal Corporation, the agency that operates all four branches of the state’s 524 mile (843 km) canal system.
Conference events will include visits to the replica canal boat Seneca Chief that will recreate Governor DeWitt Clinton’s 1825 journey from Buffalo to the “Wedding of the Waters” ceremony in New York Harbor. Study tours will feature historic canal sites and revitalization projects along the Erie Canal. Attendees will learn about operations, sustainability, tourism, and heritage development at sessions presented by waterway experts from around the world.