Greater Rochester
4 towns · 4 locks · 8 docks & marinas · 15 launches & ramps · 106 places
Around Rochester the Erie Canal is at its liveliest. This is where the canal’s famous lift bridges begin, where villages built their whole downtowns around the water, and where the “Young Lion of the West” — Rochester — grew into America’s first boomtown on the strength of canal-powered flour mills.
Fairport and Pittsford have some of the most beloved waterfronts on the entire canal — walkable, cafe-lined, and busy all summer, with Fairport’s iconic canted Main Street lift bridge as the emblem. To the east, Palmyra and Macedon add layers of canal and American religious history; to the west, Spencerport and Brockport string more lift bridges along the towpath. In Rochester itself the canal once crossed the Genesee River on a grand stone aqueduct downtown.
It’s the best cycling in the corridor — see cycling the Erie Canal — and full of places to eat and explore.
