Canal Corporation Announces Official Closing of the 183rd Navigation Season Set for Saturday, November 15

The New York State Canal Corporation today announced that the Canal System will officially close for the 183^rd consecutive navigation season at 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 15, 2008.

During the winter months, Canal Corporation employees conduct a variety of maintenance work to prepare the System for opening the following spring. This work includes repairing buoys and other equipment retrieved from the waterway in the fall, as well as repairing and rehabbing the century-old equipment used to operate the 57 locks, 19 movable bridges and dozens of water control structures across the Canal System.

The Canal Corporation also announced the availability of the 2008/2009 Winter Calendar of Events, a listing of 200 festivals, events and attractions along the 524-mile canal corridor. The Winter Calendar of Events includes a variety of holiday events, such as the Historic Palmyra's Holiday Bazaar (November 20-22), Gingerbread Gallery at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse (November 28-December 31), Heritage Holidays in the Mohawk Valley at multiple locations (November 28 & 29) and the Christmas Parade in Waterford (November 29), to name just a few.

The fun continues even after the holidays are over with activities such as Free Family Moonlight Cross Country Ski Evenings in Clifton Park (January 8, February 5 and March 5), Warm Up Oswego Festival (February 7), and Cayuga County's Mardi Gras Party (February 21 & 22).

The New York State Canal System is comprised of four historic waterways, the Erie, the Champlain, the Oswego and the Cayuga-Seneca Canals. Spanning 524 miles across New York State, the waterway links the Hudson River, Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes and the Niagara River with communities rich in history and culture.

The Canal Corporation is a proud supporter of the 2009 Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, a year long celebration designed to commemorate 400 years of progress in the Empire State. For more information on the Quadricentennial, please visit www.exploreny400.com.

For the complete 2008/2009 Winter Calendar of Events, or for more information regarding events and vacation opportunities along the Canal System, please visit www.nyscanals.gov or call 1-800-4CANAL-4.

The New York State Thruway Authority/Canal Corporation offers a free email service called TRANSalert to its customers via email or text messaging to inform them of major incidents and emergencies that may affect travel on the Thruway or navigation on the Canal System. To sign up for the Canal TRANSalert service, customers can visit the Corporation's website at www.nyscanals.gov/tas/. To sign-up for Thruway TRANSalerts please visit the Authority's website at www.nysthruway.gov/tas/.

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