Are you confused about George Westinghouse and his legacy. There were two George Westinghouse that made significant footprints within the Mohawk Towpath Byway corridor and world history.

George Westinghouse, Senior (1809 to 1884) of Central Bridge, New York improved and patented the threshing farm machine in 1836.  In 1856 he moved his family and farm machinery business to Schenectady. Here he had better supply and shipping opportunities along the Erie Canal.

George Westinghouse, Junior (1846 to 1914) patented a rotary steam engine at age 19.  He went on to invent the famous railway air break at age 22. This was patented in 1873. An electrical engineer, he was an early developer of alternating current (AC). This put him in competition with Thomas Edison’s work in direct current (DC) at what became General Electric.  George Westinghouse, Jr relocated to Pennsylvania in the 1880s to continue his business interests. _{(This image at right is from Wikipedia entitled Westinghouse in 1884).}

To gain an interesting insight why we use DC in our vehicles and AC in our homes see a Wikipedia article on The War of Currents.

Many thanks to Nancy Papish for her research to straighten out the confusion between father and son.

Did you ever wonder how many visitors we get on the byway on any particular day, or week, or month? How do we relate that to amount of money a visitor spends? How do we define a visitor? How important is the Byway to our local economy? These are all very important questions as you and I consider the value of our time as we spend volunteering for the Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway. Is our time really worth about $30 or is it worth more? Do we get a “return on this investment?”

Since the pandemic outbreak it has been interesting to count the number of cars in the parking lot of various sites along Riverview Road and in particular the various states represented by the license plates or tags. Are these numbers significant when you consider the numbers if bicyclists that are on the Towpath Trail who may have biked here or after parking at a remote location.

Are the statistics for the calls to the self-guided cell phone based tour service significant, since someone could be calling from his location, for example, in Phoenix, AZ just for curiosity. But he or she might be planning a vacation.

“…well promoted Byways that feature heritage and cultural locations along the roadway giving visitors plenty of place to visit and spend money, complimented with destination distinctive accommodations and local cuisine, can feasibly generate between $250,000 and $450,000 per mile, per year in visitor spending.” _{– Dr. Maree Forbes, National Travel Center.}

I say our volunteer time is worth a lot more than $30 per hour! Many thanks for your help during the year.

Join us Saturday, August 20 for a Rotary Canalway Challenge. Meet at the historic Niskayuna Train Station, Lions Park on Rosendale Road at 9 AM. We will bike, scooter, run in either direction: to Niskayuna GE Corp Research and back, or toward Colonie’s Mohawk Landing Park and back. We will share refreshments at Old Niskayuna Train Station Lions Park, Niskayuna. Rain date August 21 at 1 PM. #canalwaychallenge

Thank you to the Town of Clifton Park for the grant from the Community Preparedness and Resiliency Fund!

“The event was very inspiring to me seeing all the wonderful not for profits and volunteers in our town. Wonderful people doing caring and wonderful work,” exclaimed Larry Syzdek.

By Nancy Papish

Nine stalwarts from North River Friends of Clearwater joined forty-five volunteers from a combined group of pickers from Shenendehowa Rotary, Interact of Southern Saratoga and Friends of the Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway in and around the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve. NRFC selected a portion of the towpath between Ferry Drive and Erie Canal Lock 19. The main trail had numerous pickers so the trail got pretty clean fairly quickly. Several of us, therefore, decided to fan out on various side trails where we had better luck, and resent flooding provided more stuff closer to the banks of the Mohawk River in Saratoga County.

One member drove his van along the historic towpath and picked up the full bags and items retrieved that would not fit into the bags. Back at the foot of Ferry Drive, we were rewarded with pizza and water next to “the pile.”

After lunch we went back down to Lock 19 and joined the celebration where Friends of the Byway gave a plaque to Peter Bardunias for his ten years of dedicated mowing and brush clearing around this beautiful double lock. Several years ago Peter also engaged a group of high school students to design and build a wooden footbridge across one chamber. Visitors can now more closely examine the second chamber which was doubled in length almost forty years after the first chambers were built. Peter was thankful for our clean up, and we were thankful for all his work all these years.

One of our NRFC members, Kitty Trimarco, is a ninth generation descendant of the original settler – Nicholas Vischer (1734) on Ferry Drive. His house still stands and Nicholas’ son Eldert Vischer, operated the Ferry across the Mohawk River before the many versions of the N Y S Canals ran along or in the river. Her family stories added to the joy of the day shared by all of us canalers. Kitty Trimarco is pictured here congratulating Peter Bardunias.

[A footnote observation: blood root and coltsfoot were in bloom.]

Flooding also occurs from unusually heavy spring rains. Such weather occurred this spring specifically April 6 and 7. The Vischer Ferry Preserve with all its wetland acts as a flood control structure naturally holding flood waters that might overwhelm downstream residences and riverside structures. As frustrating as it seems to not be able to use some of the recreational facilities in the Preserve, it could be worse. Flooding pictured here was just below the level of the Riverview Road pavement.

Some fantastic promotional suggestions came out of the New York State Canal Conference in Schenectady this past summer. These are aimed at reaching a demographic that the Byway has not thought of previously and using partnerships that we have not taken advantage of previously. I have to note that one membership of the Friends of the Mohawk Towpath Byway is a parent of a Siena College student who combines a visit to the Byway when visiting his favorite college student.

We also have a very resourceful connection with the geology department at Union College. Dr. John Garver’s specialty is hydrology and water quality in the Mohawk River and tributaries.

But another connection is the beloved Whipple Bridge that graces the main entrance to the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve. Squire Whipple, an early graduate of Union College designed a truss bridge that was widely used on the Erie Canal as earlier generation wooden bridges started to deteriorate and become maintenance issues.

Historically as we look at our major educational institutions in the area all of these were established during the early nineteenth century during construction of the original Erie Canal. Later in that century more engineers were needed to design and enlarge the Erie Canal.

We should further cultivate our relationships with our local academic institutions. For example, not every visiting college family wants to sit through a football game. They might want to experience the fall foliage or the magic aroma of apple cider donuts being crafted at a local orchard; or the migrating bird populations passing through our area during the Homecoming weekends.

Finally, these college connections could provide insight to the economic impacts of visitors to the Mohawk Towpath Byway; could assist us with a better understanding of what appeals to our visiting public; and recommend how to market to these visitors. Ultimately they might hold the key to the potential sustainability with resource conservation, developing sustainable recreational opportunities, and other facets to implementation of our Byway’s Corridor Management Plan.