I went down to Tivoli three times in June to buy books. Down into the Hudson Valley, so connected to the Mohawk Valley as to be one valley and both rivers to be one river. But we don’t think of it that way because we travel on roads, and we cross rivers on bridges, and cars carry us effortlessly across geographic and topographic barriers like mountains and rivers, they don’t seem to exist anymore. And with the radio on, the air conditioner on and the windows closed, we are like John Travolta in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, completely isolated from the smells, sounds and scenery we are passing through at 65, 70 or more miles an hour.

But the Mohawk River/Erie Canal and Hudson River/Champlain Canal tie eastern and central New York together in a way that is more permanent and beautiful than the 570 miles of black…