One thing that fascinates me about Woonsocket is that there were some major floods in the middle of the 20th century, and after that the Army Corps of Engineers rebuilt the entire Blackstone River through downtown to prevent future floods. So if you walk by the river now, it’s all levees and riprap, like you might find along the Mississippi.

One way to see that is on a section of bike path that starts in Cold Spring Park and heads north along the river past some old mills, up to the state line. Massachusetts is planning on building a connecting path on an old railroad viaduct, which will connect to the existing path that goes from Blackstone to Millville.

And that Blackstone-to-Millville section is a nice walk in itself – about halfway in you cross the Triad Bridge, with the river and the Providence & Worcester Railroad beneath you. Piers are visible for a third bridge, never finished, that would have taken the Southern New England Railway from Palmer, MA to Providence. The owner went down with the Titanic, which may or may not be the reason it was never finished.

Further up that same bike path, off to the right, is Millville Lock, one of the best preserved locks of the Blackstone Canal. And the Blackstone Gorge is accessible nearby, which I haven’t been to, but I’ve heard is a fairly dramatic water feature relative to one’s expectations about Rhode Island’s geography and natural beauty.