An Erie place

Lockport is named for the Flight of Five locks which elevated boats headed west by 59' through the series of five locks.  The exhibit in the museum allowed Sophia to experiment with the lock gates and water flow and was very interesting.  Pretty complex problem.  The entire Erie Canal was funded by private enterprise and completed by 1825, effectively connecting NYC harbor with the commerce on the Great Lakes, plus all of the timber and ag in between and was a huge success.  Remind me a lot of why I love toll roads so much these days...

Even though usage is purely for recreational boats these days, the facilities are still an amazing representation of American ingenuity and drive from the 19th century.

The Erie Canal region increased commerce across a wide swath of NY state as the Finger Lakes region was tied in along with the Mohawk River.
In Seneca Falls in 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a number of other strong-willed and forward-thinking women and men joined for a convention on womens' rights in the Wesleyan Chapel which still stands.  Was obviously a long time 'til the 19th Amendment in 1920, but the Womens' Rights NHP is an interesting place to track the movement and its impact on American History.
Maybe it's having a strong Mom and two older sisters that started me along the path of always assuming women were superior to men?!  Took me a while to figure out what all the fuss what about...