The Mohawk River is a major waterway in northwestern New York. The river flows about 150 miles ESE from Oneida County entering the Hudson River near Albany. The cities of Schenectady, Amsterdam, Utica, and Rome are built on its banks. The river and its supporting canal, the New York State Barge Canal (still referred to as the Erie Canal), connect the Hudson River and port of New York with the Great Lakes. The river has long been important to transportation and migration to the west as a passage between the Allegheny and Adirondack highlands. The fertile valley also attracted early settlers, and a number of important battles of the French and Indian War and the Revolution were fought here. During the early westward growth of the United States, the Erie Canal was an important link to the west that followed or used the river's path.