The canal connected Seneca Lake at Watkins Glen to the Chemung River at Elmira, New York.
It was planned to connect the Finger Lakes region and Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River watershed with New York's Erie Canal system.
The latter connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and ultimately the Atlantic port of New York City.
The selection of the Chemung Canal's route was a disappointment to Ithaca, New York, which had hoped to make the Erie–Susquehanna connection via Cayuga Lake.
Subsequently, the poor drainage of the canal remnants required expenditures to correct the nuisance of undrained water.