Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Finished in 1825, it was the first waterway that people could use to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the upper Great Lakes, which are above Niagara Falls. This made it much cheaper and easier 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, calling it "Clinton's Folly" or "Clinton's Big Ditch," 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 very quickly. The canal gave New York City an advantage over other ports and helped cities along the canal, like Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo, 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, and 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 that are 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 there is less commercial travel and more people using it for fun.

History

Background

Before railroads, water transport was the most cost-effective way to ship bulk goods. A mule could carry about 250 pounds but could pull a barge weighing up to 60,000 pounds along a towpath. This could cut transport costs by about 95 percent.

In the early years of the United States, moving goods between coastal ports and the interior was slow and difficult. Rivers provided easy transport near the coast up to the fall line, but the Appalachian Mountains were a major obstacle. Passengers and freight heading west had to travel overland, which was challenging due to poor road conditions.

The principal export from the Ohio Valley was grain, which was often turned into whiskey for easier transport. Coastal residents believed that developing a cheap, reliable route to the West would bring economic success.

Conception

Early attempts to improve New York's waterways included the construction of the Wood Creek Carry in 1702. The idea of a canal connecting the East Coast to western settlements via New York's waterways was first mentioned in 1724 by Cadwallader Colden. Later, Gouverneur Morris and Elkanah Watson supported the idea, leading to the creation of navigation companies in 1792.

Jesse Hawley and Joseph Ellicott also advocated for the canal, seeing its potential to boost trade and land value. Despite initial skepticism and the nickname "Clinton's folly," New York Governor DeWitt Clinton secured approval for the project in 1817.

Construction

The original canal was 363 miles long, from Albany to Buffalo. It was 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep, with soil piled on the downhill side to form a towpath. Construction began on July 4, 1817, and faced challenges such as clearing forests and moving soil. The canal was built by Irish laborers and German stonemasons using animal power and human labor.

Construction progressed, with the first 15 miles opening in 1819. The middle section from Utica to Salina was completed in 1820, and the eastern section opened in 1823. The canal crossed difficult terrain, including the Niagara Escarpment and Irondequoit Creek, requiring innovative engineering solutions.

Completion

The entire canal was completed on October 26, 1825, after eight years of work. It was 353 miles long and cost $7.143 million. The completion was celebrated with a statewide event, including a flotilla of boats led by Governor DeWitt Clinton, who poured Lake Erie water into New York Harbor to symbolize the "Wedding of the Waters."

Branch canals

Additional canals extended the Erie Canal system, including the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, Oswego Canal, and Champlain Canal. These branches connected the main canal to other lakes and rivers, expanding the network's reach.

First enlargement

The original canal quickly became crowded, leading to a program of improvements known as the First Enlargement. This project widened and deepened the canal, replaced locks and aqueducts, and straightened some sections. The enlargement was completed in 1862.

Railroad competition

The opening of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad in 1837 provided a faster alternative to the canal. Although railroads grew in popularity, the canal still carried more freight tonnage than all New York State railroads combined as late as 1852. By the 1880s, the canal struggled to compete, leading to the end of tolls in 1883.

Barge Canal

In 1905, construction began on the New York State Barge Canal, which replaced much of the original route. Completed in 1918, the new canal allowed larger barges and used modern technologies for flood control. This expansion was expensive and faced political opposition but led to a resurgence in use.

Commercial decline

Freight traffic peaked in 1951 at 5.2 million short tons but declined due to the growth of railroads and highways, and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959. Since the 1990s, the canal has been used primarily for recreational purposes.

New York State Canal System

In 1992, the New York State Barge Canal was renamed the New York State Canal System and placed under the New York State Canal Corporation. In 2000, Congress designated the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, covering 524 miles of navigable water. Commercial traffic has seen a small resurgence due to rising fuel costs, with canal barges offering efficient transport for large loads.

Route

The Erie Canal was built to connect the Hudson River to Lake Erie, helping people and goods travel across New York more easily. The original canal started at Albany on the Hudson River and went west, following rivers and natural paths. It passed through many towns and used locks to go up and down hills.

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

Operations

Freight boats

Canal boats, pulled by horses and mules, moved slowly but steadily 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 careful method helped boats pass each other without stopping the whole canal.

Passenger boats

Special boats just 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 much cheaper to move goods between the Midwest and the Northeast. This brought lower food prices to cities in the East and made it easier and cheaper to send machines and products to the Midwest. 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 very wealthy. It also helped increase trade across the whole country by connecting the Midwest to markets in the East and overseas. Because of this important connection, New York City became the main port for all the Midwest.

The Erie Canal was very successful right away. In its first year, the money collected from tolls already paid off the state's debt for building the canal. By 1828, the taxes collected in New York helped pay for many of the government's costs. The state also paid off its loan for the canal by 1837. While the canal was built mainly for moving goods, many people also traveled on it. In 1825, over 40,000 passengers enjoyed the beauty and convenience of traveling by canal boat. The canal was used for many purposes beyond what its builders first planned. Preachers traveled the canal to reach communities, and it even helped people escape to freedom near the border with Canada. Merchants found tourists to be good customers, and some less honest people tried to sell fake goods or cheat others.

As the canal brought many visitors to New York City, it took business away from other ports like Philadelphia and Baltimore. These cities then started their own projects to compete with the Erie Canal. 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 much 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 difficult problems that had to be solved to build the Erie Canal made heroes out of the people who found new ways to do it, which helped people see the value of learning practical skills. Chicago and other cities near the Great Lakes realized how important the canal was for their economies, and they named streets after it.

The canal also played a part in creating 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 by about $6.2 billion 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."

In 2004, the administration of New York Governor George Pataki faced criticism when officials tried to sell parts of the Old Erie Canal to one developer for $30,000, which was much less than the land’s real value. After a report by the Syracuse Post-Standard, the plan was stopped.

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. Except for two years (1827–1829), New York did not ask canal boat operators to keep or send in lists of passengers.

Locks

The Erie Canal has 36 locks, which help boats move up and down hills along the waterway. Each lock is shaped like a single room and is big enough to fit 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, called the Waterford Flight (Locks E2 through E6), lifts boats very quickly over a short distance. These locks 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, which is managed by a different group. The Erie Canal officially starts at the place 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.