anches were added later. At
the close of 1882, when tolls were abolished, the total revenues
derived from the canal had been $121,461,871, while expenditures
had amounted to $78,862,154. Various factors, including the
competition of the railroads, caused a considerable decline in
canal traffic in the last quarter of a century. The old canal was
a ditch following the line of the Mohawk and other rivers and
creeks. The new barge canal system has four branches, the Erie,
from Albany to Buffalo; the Champlain, from Albany to Lake
Champlain the Oswego, which starts north midway on the line of
the Erie Canal and reaches Lake Ontario, and the Cayuga and
Seneca, which leaves the Erie canal a little to the west of the
Oswego junction and extends south, first to Cayuga Lake and then
to Seneca Lake. The new canal system was first intended for 1,000
ton barges, but its capacity has been made much larger. Various
sections of the improved canal were completed between 1916 and
1918, and the total cost has been about $150,000,000.

Within 35 years Albany has increased fivefold in size, and is today the
intersecting point of the principal water routes of the Eastern States,
for besides being near the head of navigation for large steamers on the
Hudson, it is virtually the terminus of the N.Y. State barge canal. It
is also the key point in the transportation system of the state, for
here the B. & A. and the D. & H. railroads meet the New York Central, so
that one can take train for Buffalo and Chicago, the Thousand Islands,
the Adirondacks, Saratoga, Lakes George and Champlain, Montreal, Vermont
and the Green Mts., the Berkshires, and Boston. It is the second largest
express and third largest mail transfer point in the United States. The
forests of the Adirondacks and of Canada have made it a great lumber
post. Its manufactures have an annual value of $30,000,000 or more; they
include iron goods, stoves, wood and brass products, carriages and
wagons, brick and tile, shirts, collars and cuffs, clothing and knit
goods, shoes, flour, tobacco, cigars, billiard balls, dominoes and
checkers.

Leaving Albany, we follow closely the path of the old Iroquois Trail,
which was in early days, as now, the chief highway to the Great Lakes.

The Indian trail began at Albany and led directly across the
country to Schenectady; from this point to Rome there were two
trails, one