Alta on behalf of the Hudson River Valley Greenway and the Governor of NY, brought together statewide organizations, including the New York State Department of Transportation, the NYS Canal Corp, and several other agencies to develop an implementable plan that would connect several trails including the Erie Canalway Trail, Hudson River Valley Greenway, and Champlain Canalway Trail to formulate the Empire State Trail (EST) initiative.
This signature trail now connects New York’s unique places, diverse history, and iconic landscapes, including 135 urban centers and 45 village main streets from New York City through the Hudson River Valley, west to Buffalo along the Erie Canal, and north to the Champlain Valley and Adirondacks. Alta’s trail user estimate predicted that nearly nine million people will visit the trail each year.
What once seemed like an unachievable idea, the Empire State Trail’s roughly 60 construction projects were completed in under four years and involved an enormous amount of support from a variety of state agencies and public partners, as well as Alta’s own team of professionals. Learn more about the history of the Empire State Trail and how “an impossible dream” was realized.
