ns to use the Canal. This expensive project was politically unpopular in parts of the state not served by the canal, and failed to save it from becoming obsolete.
The new alignment began on the Hudson River at the border between Cohoes and Waterford, where it ran northwest with five locks, running into the Mohawk east of Crescent. While the old Canal ran next to the Mohawk all the way to Rome, the new canal ran through the river, straightened or widened where necessary. At Ilion the new canal left the river for good, but continued to run on a new alignment parallel to both the river and the old canal to Rome. From Rome the new route continued almost due west, merging with Fish Creek just east of its entry into Oneida Lake.
From Oneida Lake, the new canal ran west along the Oneida River, with cutoffs to shorten the route. At Three Rivers the Oneida River turns northwest, and was deepened for the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario. The new Erie Canal turned south there along the Seneca River, which turns west near Syracuse and continues west to a point in the Montezuma Marsh (). There the Cayuga and Seneca Canal continued south with the Seneca River, and the new Erie Canal again ran parallel to the old Canal along the bottom of the Niagara Escarpment, in some places running along the Clyde River, and in some places replacing the old Canal. At Pittsford, southeast of Rochester, the Canal turned west to run around the south side of Rochester, rather than through downtown. The Canal currently crosses the Genesee River at the Genesee Valley Park (). It then rejoins the old path near North Gates. From there it was again roughly an upgrade to the original canal, running west to Lockport and southwest to Tonawanda, where the new alignment simply emptied into the Niagara River.
Due to the growth of highways, railroads, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway, commercial traffic on the canal declined dramatically during the second half of the 20th century. Since the 1990s, the Canal system has been used primarily by recreational traffic, although a very limited amount commercial traffic still uses the it. Erie Canal is open to small craft and some larger vessels for most of the year. During winter, water is drained from parts of the canal for maintenance. The boating season runs from May through November.
In 1992, the New York State Barge Canal was renamed the New York State Canal System (including the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca, Oswego, and Champlain Canals) and put under the newly created New York State Canal Corporation, a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority. Today the Erie Canal Corridor covers of navigable water from Lake Champlain to the Capital Region and west to Lake Erie. The area has a population of 2.7 million, and about 75% of upstate New York's population lives within of the Erie Canal. In 2006, recreational boating fees were eliminated to attract more visitors. The Canal System is operated using money generated by Thruway tolls.
The Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain, and the Chambly Canal and Richelieu River in Canada form the Lakes to Locks Passage, making a tourist attraction of the former waterway linking eastern Canada to the Erie Canal.
Travel on the Canal's middle section (particularly in the Mohawk Valley) was severely hampered by flooding in late June and early July 2006. Flood damage to the canal and its facilities was estimated as at least $15 million.
Sections of the old Erie Canal abandoned after 1918 are owned by New York state, or have been ceded to or purchased by counties or municipalities. Many stretches of the old Canal have been filled in to create roads such as Erie Boulevard in Syracuse, and Broad Street and the Rochester Subway in Rochester. A stretch of the old Canal is preserved by the New York state at Old Erie Canal State Historic Park, and in 1960 the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, a section of the canal in Montgomery County, was one of the first sites recognized as a National Historic Landmark.
Some municipalities have elected to preserve sections as town or county canal parks, or have plans