TOWN OF DEWITT – A communal bike ride on Aug. 14 celebrated the bridging of a gap on the Erie Canalway Trail and thus the completion of the 750-mile Empire State Trail system.
Bringing out around 60 cyclists, the Wedding the Waters canal ride marked the closure of the 14-mile gap that used to exist between DeWitt and Camillus.
Sam Gordon, the senior project manager for Environmental Design & Research, said the “safe, well-marked” route brings riders through the heart of the community, since the new path runs through downtown Syracuse and traverses the southwest portion of the edge line of Onondaga Lake.
Along the journey, people can bike, roller skate, Segway, jog or stroll their way over the CSX railroad tracks and through Clinton Square, all the while aligning with the general course of the historical Erie Canal.
The 14-mile trail is also adjoined with the median on Erie Boulevard that leads to Teall Avenue.
Gordon said the project, which originated in 2014 with the Elevating Erie initiative, has been transformational for DeWitt, judging by his recollection of the same median being paved with asphalt, covered in weeds and strewn with scattered garbage.
Now, he sees the greater amount of grass and trees on the heavily traveled corridor—in addition to the bike lanes that correspond with what was once the human-built waterway—as a step toward a renewed link with the lingering remnants of the area’s canal heritage.
“Syracuse wouldn’t be here really if it weren’t for the Erie Canal,” Gordon said. “That was the impetus for early growth, and it was a way of getting salt from Onondaga Lake and the salt flats down to New York City. At the same time, people don’t realize that Erie Boulevard is called Erie Boulevard because it used to be the Erie Canal.”
Formerly the planning director for the Town of DeWitt, Gordon said the vision for connectivity and improvement involved the allocation of over $200 million statewide as well as the Onondaga Lake cleanup project led by Honeywell.
“It was a partnership amongst a lot of different entities, public and private, to really make this a possibility through Central New York,” Gordon said.
For the Wedding the Waters event this month, one group of riders started at Reed Webster Park off Warners Road in Camillus and the other group started at the Butternut Drive Trailhead of Old Erie Canal State Historic Park in DeWitt.
The participants then biked from their respective end of the one-time gap until they reached the Erie Canal Museum, where a late morning ceremony showcased live music from Harmonic Dirt and a beer tasting courtesy of Talking Cursive Brewing Company.
Outside the Weighlock building, bicyclists poured out bottles containing water from the DeWitt and Camillus sections of the canal as a means of symbolically illustrating the closing of the gap.
According to Gordon, bicyclists would often order an Uber to the other side of Syracuse in past years, but the recent connection of the two towns allows them to get to the downtown bars, restaurants and hotels on two wheels with greater ease.
Running from Albany to Buffalo east to west, the Empire State Trail also stretches down to New York City and up to Rouses Point, which sits right at the Canadian border.
