GLENVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Two centuries after New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton opened the Erie Canal with a triumphant boat trip from Buffalo to New York City, a brightly painted replica of the vessel is slowly retracing the historic journey through the waterway and down the Hudson River.

A few things have changed since 1825.

The replica Seneca Chief is being helped along by a tugboat, not by horses or mules. The once chest-deep waterway between Albany and Buffalo has been enlarged. Much of the original route has been changed. And barges have largely given way to pleasure boats and kayaks.

But the 73-foot (22-meter) wooden boat is a floating reminder of a time when the Erie Canal helped hasten westward expansion in the United States. The Seneca Chief has made more than two dozen stops in the p

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