LOCKPORT, N.Y. — Chances are you are familiar with New York's Erie Canal. But many New Yorkers have never actually set out on our state's famous waterway.

Visitors have been touring the Erie Canal with Lockport Locks and Canal Cruises since 1987.

“Some people will call locks stairs for boats, we call them elevators for boats,” said Captain John Murphy.

Murphy is the grandson of the tour’s founders. He says the top of the Erie Canal in Buffalo is 567 feet higher than where it starts at the Hudson River in Albany. 

There are 57 locks that make it possible for boats to make the journey. There were five original locks in Lockport alone, which is how the town got its name back in 1862.

“Because there were more locks than any other city on the canal when it first opened up,” said Murphy.

As the tour approaches the first of two modern locks built in 1915, the smaller, original locks can be seen to the right.

After entering the locks, Capt. Murphy explains how they work.

“It’s like two big bathtubs, so you have two big locks or two big tubs,” said Murphy.

Water is released into the lock, raising the water level, thus lifting the boat to the next lock. It takes about 3 million gallons of water to lift the boat to the next lock.

The doors open and it’s on to the second lock. Then the process repeats. After about 10 minutes, the boat is at the top.

Capt. Murphy tells the kids on the tour about the role they could have played in digging the canal with explosives.

“Powder Monkeys, 10 or 11-year-old boys," said Murphy. “They were the only ones small enough to get down to these cracks or natural fissures, in the rock and they’d set the charges off and climb on out before it went off.”

The powder monkeys were the highest-paid canal workers, earning $0.90 a day.

Before returning to the dock, the tour boat heads back down the locks. It's 50 feet back down to the level where the boat started.

Capt. Murphy encourages everyone, especially New Yorkers to experience the Erie Canal at some point.

“It’s so much of the history, it’s what made New York state the Empire State," said Murphy.