New York State's First Railroad

The sixteen locks that it took to get boat traffic over the Cohoes Falls region in the east section were often choked with boat traffic of all kinds.  Passengers were usually shuttled the eighteen miles between Albany and Schenectady by stagecoach - and later by railroad - rather than being asked to endure those delays in the cramped quarters of their packet boats (below).

Packet boats were the passenger-liners of the Erie Canal

One of the things that made canal travel so attractive to passengers was the generally horrible condition of the roads of that time.  The new technology of steam railroads also promised relatively smooth travel, and it wasn't long before the bumpy ride on stagecoaches over this stretch was improved by New York State's very first railroad: The Mohawk Hudson Railroad (above) carried Erie Canal passengers between Albany and Schenectady, and was the forerunner of the New York Central Railroad, which would later become one of the Erie's principal competitors.