Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York. It runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. It was finished in 1825 and was the first waterway people could use to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the upper Great Lakes, which are above Niagara Falls. This made it easier and cheaper to move people and goods across the Appalachians. Because of the Erie Canal, many more people moved to live in the Great Lakes region, and the United States grew westward. It also helped New York state become very important.

People first thought about building a canal from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes in the 1780s, but work didn’t start until 1817. Some people made fun of the idea, but it became very successful after it opened on October 26, 1825. The money it made from fees paid back the cost of building it quickly. The canal gave New York City an advantage over other ports and helped cities along the canal grow.

Building the Erie Canal was a big achievement in engineering. When it was finished, it was the second-longest canal in the world after the Grand Canal in China. Over time, the canal was made wider and deeper. Today, it is used mostly for fun by people on boats. It is also a popular place for tourists to visit, with many parks and museums about its history. A cycling path called the New York State Canalway Trail runs along the canal, and in 2000, Congress named the area the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor to help protect it.

Ambiguity in name

The Erie Canal today looks very different from the one built in the 1800s. Most of the original canal was destroyed or left unused when the New York State Barge Canal was built in the early 1900s. The parts still used were made wider, especially west of Syracuse, with new bridges and locks. It was called the Barge Canal back then, but that name is not used much anymore because fewer people use it for work and more people use it for fun.

History

Background

Before railroads, water transport was the best way to move bulk goods. A mule could carry only 250 pounds, but it could pull a barge weighing up to 60,000 pounds. This made shipping much cheaper.

In the early days of the United States, moving goods from the coast to the interior was slow. Rivers helped near the coast, but the Appalachian Mountains made travel hard. Goods from the Ohio Valley were often turned into whiskey for easier travel. People thought a cheap route to the West would help the economy.

Conception

People tried to improve New York's waterways long ago. The idea of a canal was first mentioned in 1724. Later, many people supported it. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton got approval for the canal in 1817.

Construction

The original canal was 363 miles long, from Albany to Buffalo. It was built by Irish workers and German stonemasons. The canal opened in parts between 1819 and 1823.

Completion

The canal was finished on October 26, 1825. It was celebrated with a big event, including a group of boats. Governor Clinton poured Lake Erie water into New York Harbor.

Branch canals

More canals were added to connect to other lakes and rivers.

First enlargement

The canal became busy, so it was widened and deepened. This work was finished in 1862.

Railroad competition

The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad opened in 1837 and was faster. Even so, the canal still carried more goods than all the railroads in 1852. By the 1880s, the canal had trouble competing.

Barge Canal

In 1905, work began on the New York State Barge Canal. It was finished in 1918 and allowed bigger ships.

Commercial decline

The amount of goods moved on the canal fell after 1951. Since the 1990s, the canal is mostly used for fun.

New York State Canal System

In 1992, the canal was renamed the New York State Canal System. In 2000, it became part of the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. Some businesses use it again because it saves fuel.

Route

The Erie Canal was built to connect the Hudson River to Lake Erie. This made it easier for people and goods to travel across New York.

The original canal started at Albany on the Hudson River and went west. It followed rivers and natural paths and passed through many towns. The canal used locks to go up and down hills.

A newer version, called the Barge Canal, was built later. It started a bit farther west at Cohoes and also went west. This newer canal followed a different path in some areas to make travel easier. It helped boats move smoothly from the Hudson River to Buffalo, near Lake Erie.

Operations

Freight boats

Canal boats, pulled by horses and mules, moved slowly along a path beside the water. When two boats met, one had the right of way and stayed on the path, while the other moved aside. This helped boats pass each other without stopping the whole canal.

Passenger boats

Special boats for passengers could go up to five miles per hour and had more frequent trips than bumpy wagons. These boats were up to 78 feet long and could fit many people. By day, they had comfortable seats and books, and at night, they turned into sleeping areas with beds that folded down from the walls.

Sunday closing debate

In 1858, some people wanted to close the Erie Canal on Sundays, but others argued that the canal was like a natural river and should not be stopped, just like oceans. Their argument won, and the canal stayed open on Sundays.

Impact

The Erie Canal made it easier and cheaper to move goods from the Midwest to the Northeast. This helped lower food prices in cities and made it easier to send machines and products west. For example, the cost to move a barrel of flour from Rochester to Albany dropped from $3 to just 75¢ after the canal opened. The canal helped New York City, Buffalo, and New York State grow wealthy. It also increased trade across the country by connecting the Midwest to markets in the East and overseas. Because of this, New York City became the main port for the Midwest.

The Erie Canal was successful from the start. In its first year, the money from tolls paid off the state's debt for building the canal. By 1828, taxes in New York helped pay for many government costs. The state paid off its loan for the canal by 1837. While the canal was built to move goods, many people also traveled on it. In 1825, over 40,000 passengers enjoyed traveling by canal boat. The canal was used for many purposes beyond what its builders planned. Preachers traveled the canal to reach communities, and it helped some people find freedom near the border with Canada. Merchants found tourists to be good customers.

As the canal brought many visitors to New York City, it took business away from other ports like Philadelphia and Baltimore. These cities started their own projects to compete. In Pennsylvania, a canal and railroad called the Main Line of Public Works opened in 1834. In Maryland, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was completed in 1853.

The Erie Canal also helped connect the United States more closely to Britain and Europe. When Britain changed its Corn Law, it allowed more wheat from the Midwest to be sold there. Trade between the United States and Canada also grew, and much of this trade used the Erie Canal.

The success of the Erie Canal inspired many other places to build their own canals. The problems solved to build the Erie Canal made heroes of the people who found new ways to do it. Chicago and other cities near the Great Lakes saw how important the canal was for their economies, and they named streets after it.

The canal also helped create the Adirondack Park to protect the area from damage.

Many famous writers wrote about the Erie Canal, and many songs and stories were made about life on the canal. One popular song, "Low Bridge, Everybody Down," was written in 1905 to remember the early days when mules pulled the boats instead of engines.

The Erie Canal also changed laws in New York. It helped the government gain the right to take private land for public projects and changed ideas about property rights and water use.

The canal today

Today, the Erie Canal is mainly used for fun by people in boats, but some businesses still use it to move things. The canal is open for small and some bigger boats from May to November each year. In the winter, parts of the canal are drained so workers can fix them. The Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain, and the Chambly Canal, and Richelieu River in Canada connect to the Erie Canal, creating a popular route for visitors from eastern Canada. In 2006, fees for recreational boating were stopped to bring in more visitors.

The Erie Canal attracts tourists from all over the world and has inspired guidebooks for exploring the waterway. An Erie Canal Cruise company, based in Herkimer, offers daily cruises from mid-May to mid-October. These cruises share the history of the canal and take passengers through Lock 18.

Besides moving things, many farms, factories, and towns along the canal still use its water for things like watering crops, making power, research, and even drinking water. The canal helps the local economy each year.

Old Erie Canal

The older path of the canal, made during the First Enlargement, is now called the "Improved Erie Canal" or the "Old Erie Canal." Parts of the original 1825 canal, which were not used after 1918, are called "Clinton's Ditch." Some of these old sections are owned by New York State or by local governments. Many parts of the old canal have been turned into roads, like Erie Boulevard in Syracuse and Schenectady, and Broad Street and the Rochester Subway in Rochester. A 36-mile stretch of the old canal from DeWitt, New York to near Rome, New York is kept as the Old Erie Canal State Historic Park. In 1960, the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site was one of the first places named a National Historic Landmark.

Some towns have kept parts of the old canal as parks or plan to do so. Camillus Erie Canal Park saves a 7-mile stretch and has fixed the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct, built in 1841. In some places, the old canal has filled with plants and dirt. Ideas have been suggested to bring water back to the old canal in downtown Rochester or Syracuse for tourists. In Syracuse, the old canal’s place is marked by a pool in Clinton Square, and the town has an old canal barge and a weigh lock structure that is now dry. Buffalo’s Commercial Slip is a restored and re-watered part of the canal’s "Western Terminus."

Parks and museums

Parks and museums related to the Old Erie Canal include:

• Day Peckinpaugh ship; plans were to turn it into a floating museum by 2012
• Watervliet Side Cut Locks, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971
• Enlarged Erie Canal Historic District (Discontiguous) in Cohoes, New York, listed in 2004
• Cohoes Falls Park in Cohoes, New York, with a view of an old canal lock
• Enlarged Double Lock No. 23, Old Erie Canal in Rotterdam
• Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site at Fort Hunter
• Old Erie Canal State Historic Park from Rome to DeWitt, including:
  • Erie Canal Village near Rome
  • Canastota Canal Town Museum in Canastota
  • Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum near Chittenango
• Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse
• Camillus Erie Canal Park in Camillus
• Jordan Canal Park in Elbridge
• Enlarged Double Lock No. 33 Old Erie Canal in St. Johnsville
• Erie Canal Lock 52 Complex in Port Byron and Mentz, listed in 1998
• Seneca River Crossing Canals Historic District in Montezuma and Tyre, listed in 2005
• Centerport Aqueduct Park near Weedsport, listed in 2000
• Lock Berlin Park near Clyde
• Macedon Aqueduct Park near Palmyra
• Old Erie Canal Lock 60 Park in Macedon
• Perinton Park in Perinton near Fairport
• Genesee Valley Park in Rochester
• Spencerport Depot & Canal Museum in Spencerport
• Niagara Escarpment "Flight of Five" locks at Lockport
• Erie Canal Discovery Center in Lockport (Locks 34 and 35)
• Canalside Buffalo at the canal’s "Western Terminus"

Erie Canalway Trail

Main article: New York State Canalway Trail

Records and research

Information about the planning, money, design, building, and managing of the Erie Canal can be found in the New York State Archives.

Locks

The Erie Canal has 36 locks. These locks help boats go up and down hills along the canal. Each lock is shaped like a room. It is big enough for a boat up to 300 feet long and 43.5 feet wide. The height of the lock walls changes depending on how much the water level needs to change.

One special group of locks is called the Waterford Flight (Locks E2 through E6). These locks lift boats very quickly over a short distance. They raise boats almost 170 feet in just a few miles.

The canal does not have locks numbered E1 or E31. Instead, near Troy, New York, there is a lock called the Troy Federal Lock. It is managed by a different group. The Erie Canal officially starts where the Hudson River and Mohawk River meet in Waterford, New York.

Although the old part of the canal near Buffalo has been filled in, boats can still travel from Buffalo through the Black Rock Lock to the modern end of the canal in Tonawanda, and then all the way to Albany.