Erie Canal Totally Explained

The Erie Canal (currently part of the New York State Canal System) is a canal in New York State, United States, that runs from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, connecting the Great Lakes with theAtlantic Ocean. Although the canal was first proposed in 1699, it wasn't until 1798 that the Niagara Canal Company was incorporated and commenced preparations for building. The first section of canal was completed in 1819, and the entire canal was opened on October 26, 1825. It was 363 miles (584 km) long, 40 feet (12 m) wide, and 4 feet (1.2 m) deep. There were 83 locks along the canal, each 90 feet by 15 feet (27 m by 4.5 m). Maximum canal-boat displacement was 75 tons (68 tonnes). The Erie Canal was the first transportation route faster than carts pulled by draft animals between the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and the western interior, and cut transport costs into what was then wilderness by about 95%. The Canal resulted in a massive population surge in western New York, and opened regions further west to increased settlement.

History

Proposal and logistics

The extraordinary success of the Bridgewater Canal in Britain, completed in 1761 to connect a coal mine to Manchester, led to a frenzy of canal building in England late in the 18th century. The idea of a canal or artificially improved waterway to tie the east coast to the new western settlements was in the air—Cadwallader Colden first proposed using the Mohawk River valley in 1724. George Washington led a serious effort to turn the Potomac River into a navigable link to the west, sinking substantial energy and capital into the Patowmack Company from 1785 until his death fifteen years later. Christopher Colles, who was familiar with the Bridgewater Canal, surveyed the Mohawk River valley and made a presentation to the New York state legislature in 1784 proposing a canal from Albany to Lake Ontario; the proposal drew considerable attention and some action, but the effort would ultimately come to nothing. Gouverneur Morris and Elkanah Watson were other early proponents of a canal along the Mohawk, whose efforts lead to the creation of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, which took the first actual steps to improve navigation on the Mohawk; the company was to prove that private financing was inadequate for a task of such scope.
   The canal proponent whose efforts would lead directly to the canal was the entrepreneurial Jesse Hawley, who imagined being able to grow huge quantities of grain in the upstate New York plains (then largely unsettled) for sale on the Eastern Seaboard. However he went bankrupt trying to ship it to the coast, and while sitting in the Canandaigua debtors' prison he started pressing for the construction of a canal running along the Mohawk River valley. He had strong support from Joseph Ellicott, agent for the Holland Land Company in Batavia. Ellicott realized that a canal would add immense value to the land he was selling in the western part of the state. Ellicott later became the first canal commissioner.
   The Mohawk River, a tributary to the Hudson, runs in a glacial meltwater channel across the northern reaches of the Appalachians, separating them in New York State into the Catskills and Adirondacks. The Mohawk Valley was the only cut across the Appalachians north of Alabama, and pointed almost directly from the already widely used Hudson River on the east, to either Lake Ontario or Lake Erie on the west. From there much of the interior and many settlements would be accessible on the lakes.
   The problem was, the land rises about 600 feet (183 m) from the Hudson River at Albany, New York to Lake Erie. Locks at the time could handle a change of up to 12 feet (3.5 m), so at least 50 locks would be required along the 360 mile canal. Any such canal would cost a fortune even today, but in 1800 such an undertaking was barely imaginable. President Jefferson, calling it "a little short of madness," thought the proposal was ridiculous and rejected it. Nevertheless Hawley managed to interest the governor, DeWitt Clinton, and after surveying the plan went ahead. Due to the overwhelming perception that the plan was absurd, the project became known as "Clinton's Folly," or "Clinton's Ditch." In 1817, Clinton was successful in convincing the New York State legislature to authorize the funds for building the canal.
   The canal was to consist of a forty foot (12 m) wide, four foot (1.2 m) deep cut, with the removed soil being piled on the downhill side to form a walkway on that side. Barges, up to 3.5 feet (1.07 m) in draft, would be pulled by horses, and later mules on the walkway. With only one towpath for traffic in both directions, when barges passed each other there was a quick unhitching and re-hitching of the draft animal teams while the barges continued by momentum. The sides of the cut would be lined with stone, while the bottom would be covered with clay. The stone work required hundreds of German masons to be brought in, who would later go on to build many of New York's famous buildings when the canal was completed.

Construction

Construction began July 4, 1817, at Rome, New York. The first 15 mile (24 km) section between Rome and Utica opened two years later. At this rate the canal wouldn't have been finished for another 30 years or so. The main problems were cutting the trees through miles of virgin forest, and moving the dirt, which was proving to be much slower than expected. Solutions were discovered, trees were pulled down with a rope thrown over the top of the tree and then winched down, and the stumps pulled out with a huge tripod-mounted winch. Mule-pulled carts were filled from much larger wheelbarrows to clear the dirt. A three-man team with mules could now build a mile-long stretch in a year, meaning that the problem now was staffing.
   The men who planned and oversaw construction were novices, both as surveyors and as engineers — there were no civil engineers in the United States at the time. James Geddes and Benjamin Wright who laid out the route were judges, who had gained experience in surveying in settling boundary disputes; Geddes had only used a surveying instrument for a few hours. Canvass White was a 27-year-old amateur engineer, who talked Clinton into letting him go to Britain at his own expense to study the canal system there. Nathan Roberts was a math teacher and land speculator. Yet these men "carried the Erie Canal up the Niagara escarpment at Lockport, maneuvered it onto a towering embankment to cross over Irondequoit creek, spanned the Genesee River for it on an awesome aqueduct, and carved a route for it out of the solid rock between Little Falls and Schenectady—and all of those venturesome designs worked precisely as planned." (Bernstein, p. 381)
   Construction continued at an increased rate as new workers arrived, but halted completely when the canal reached the Montezuma Swamp in 1819 at the outlet of Cayuga Lake west of Syracuse, New York, when over 1000 workers died of swamp fevers. Work continued on the "downhill" side towards the Hudson, and when the swamp froze over in the winter, the crews all worked to complete the section right across the swamps.
   The middle section from Utica to Salina (Syracuse) was completed in 1820, and traffic on that section started up directly. The eastern section of the canal, 250 miles (402 km) from Rochester to Albany, was opened on September 10, 1823, to great fanfare; the 64-mile (103 km) north-south section from Watervliet to Lake Champlain, also known as the Champlain Canal, was declared open on the same date. In 1824, even before the entire canal was completed, a detailed Pocket Guide for the Tourist and Traveler, Along the Line of the Canals, and the Interior Commerce of the State of New York, was published for the benefit of eager travelers and land speculators — possibly America's first published tour guide.
   After Montezuma, the next obstacle was crossing the Niagara Escarpment, an 80-foot (24 m) wall of hard dolomitic limestone, in order to rise to the level of Lake Erie. The route followed the channel of a creek that had cut a ravine steeply down the escarpment, with a pair of five locks in a series, thus giving rise to the community of Lockport. These 12-foot lift-locks had a total lift of 60 feet, exiting into a deeply cut channel. The final leg of the canal had to be cut as much as 30 feet (9 m) through another limestone layer, the Onondaga ridge. Much of that section was blasted with black powder. The inexperience of the crews often led to accidents, and sometimes rocks falling on nearby homes. Two villages competed to be the terminus of the canal, Black Rock, on the Niagara River, and Buffalo, New York, at the eastern tip of Lake Erie. Buffalo expended great energy to widen and deepen Buffalo Creek to make it navigable, and to create a harbor at its mouth. Buffalo won over Black Rock, and quickly grew into a great city, eventually swallowing its former competitor.
   Work was completed on November 4, 1825. Officially the event was marked by a statewide "Grand Celebration," culminating in successive cannon shots along the length of the canal, which took 90 minutes to travel from Buffalo to New York City. A flotilla of boats left from Buffalo, led by Governor Dewitt Clinton aboard the Seneca Chief, taking 10 days to travel to New York City, where Clinton ceremonially poured Lake Erie water into the New York Harbor in the "Wedding of the Waters."

The route

The canal began on the west side of the Hudson River at Albany, and ran north to a split with the Champlain Canal at Troy. At Cohoes it turned west along the south shore of the Mohawk River, crossing to the north side at Crescent and again to the south at Rexford Flats. The canal continued west near the south shore of the Mohawk River all the way to Rome, where the Mohawk turns north.
At Rome, the canal continued west parallel to Wood Creek, which flows from Oneida Lake, and turned southwest and west cross-country to avoid the lake. From Canastota west it ran roughly along the north (lower) edge of the Niagara Escarpment, passing through Syracuse and Rochester. At Lockport the canal turned southwest to rise to the top of the escarpment, using the ravine of Eighteenmile Creek. The canal continued south-southwest to Pendleton, where it turned west and southwest, mainly using the channel of Tonawanda Creek. From Tonawanda south to Buffalo it ran just east of the Niagara River, emptying out into the river in downtown Buffalo.

Enlargements and improvements

Problems developed but were quickly solved. Leaks developed along the entire length of the canal, but these were sealed with a newly invented concrete that hardened under water. Erosion on the clay bottom proved to be a problem and the speed was limited to 4 mph (6 km/h).
The original design planned for an annual tonnage of 1.5 million tons (1.36 million tonnes), but this was exceeded immediately. An ambitious program to improve the canal was begun in 1834. During this massive series of construction projects, known as the First Enlargement, the canal was widened to 70 feet and deepened to 7 feet. Locks were widened and/or rebuilt in new locations, and many new aqueducts were constructed. The canal was also straightened and slightly re-routed in some stretches, resulting in the abandonment of short segments of the original 1825 canal. This First Enlargement was completed in 1862, with further minor enlargements in later decades. Today, the reconfiguration of the canal created during the First Enlargement is commonly referred to as the Improved Erie Canal or the Old Erie Canal, to distinguish it from the canal's modern-day course. Existing remains of the 1825 canal abandoned during the Enlargement are sometimes referred to today as Clinton's Ditch (which was also the popular nickname for the entire Erie Canal project during its original 1817–1825 construction).
Additional canals (called feeder canals) soon added to the coverage, including the Cayuga-Seneca south to the Finger Lakes, the Oswego from Three Rivers north to Lake Ontario at Oswego, and the Champlain running north from Troy to Lake Champlain. A short canal, the Crooked Lake Canal, from 1833 to 1877 connected Keuka Lake and Seneca Lake. The Chemung Canal connected the south end of Seneca Lake to Elmira in 1833, and was an important route for Pennsylvania coal and timber to be shipped throughout the canal system. The Chenango Canal in 1836 connected the Erie at Utica to Binghamton and caused a business boom in the Chenango River valley. The Chenango and Chemung canals linked the Erie with the Susquehanna River system. The Black River Canal connected the Black River to the Erie Canal at Rome and remained in operation until the 1920s. The Genesee Valley Canal was run along the Genesee River to connect with the Allegheny River at Olean, but the Allegheny section which would have connected to the Ohio and Mississippi was never built. The Genesee Valley Canal was later abandoned and became the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad.

Competition

As the canal brought travelers to New York City, it took them from other ports such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland. Those cities and the states containing them chartered means of competition to the Erie Canal. In Pennsylvania, the Main Line of Public Works was a combined canal and railroad running west from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh on the Ohio River, opened in 1834. In Maryland, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran west to Wheeling, West Virginia, also on the Ohio River, and was completed in 1853.
   Competition also came from inside New York State. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad opened in 1831, providing a bypass to the slowest part of the canal between Albany and Schenectady. Other railroads were soon chartered and built to continue the line west to Buffalo, and in 1842 a continuous line (which would become the New York Central Railroad and its Auburn Road in 1853) was open the whole way to Buffalo. As the railroad served the same general route as the canal, but provided for faster travel, passengers soon switched to it. However as late as 1852, the canal carried thirteen times more freight tonnage than all the railroads in New York state, combined; it continued to compete well with the railroads through 1882, when tolls were abolished.
   The New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway was completed in 1884, as a route running closely parallel to both the canal and the New York Central Railroad. However, it went bankrupt and was acquired the next year by the New York Central.
   In 1905, construction of the New York State Barge Canal began, which was completed in 1918, at a cost of $101 million; freight traffic reached a total of 5.2 million tons by 1951, before declining in the face of combined rail and truck competition.

Impact

The Erie Canal made boom towns of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Rome, Utica and Schenectady and made an immense contribution to the wealth and importance of New York City and New York state. Its impact went much further, increasing trade throughout the nation by opening eastern and overseas markets to Midwest farm products and encouraging western immigration. New ethnic Irish communities formed in some towns along its route after completion, as Irish immigrants were a large portion of labor force involved in its construction.
   Because so many immigrants traveled on the canal, many genealogists would like to find copies of canal passenger lists. Unfortunately, apart from the years 1827-1829, canal boat operators were not required to record or report passenger names to the government, which in this case was the State of New York. Those 1827-1829 passenger lists survive today in the New York State Archives.
   It also helped bind the still-new nation closer to Britain and Europe. British repeal of the Corn Law resulted in a huge increase in trade in Midwestern wheat to Britain. Trade between the US and Canada also increased as a result of the corn law and a reciprocity (free-trade) agreement signed in 1854; much of this trade flowed along the Erie.
   Its success also prompted imitation: a rash of canal building followed. Also, the many technical hurdles that had to be overcome made heroes of those whose innovations made the canal possible; this would lead to an increased esteem for practical education.
   Many wrote about the canal, including Herman Melville, Frances Trollope, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Samuel Hopkins Adams and the Marquis de Lafayette, and many tales and songs were written about life on the canal. The popular song Low Bridge by Thomas S. Allen was written in 1905 to memorialize the canal's early heyday, when barges were pulled by mules rather than engines. Chicago, among other Great Lakes cities, recognized the commercial importance of the canal to their economies, and two West Loop streets are named Canal and Clinton (for canal proponent DeWitt Clinton).
   Concerns that erosion caused by logging in the Adirondacks could silt up the canal contributed to the creation of another New York National Historic Landmark, the Adirondack Park, in 1885.

The Erie Canal today

The New York State Canal System

In 1918 the canal was replaced by the larger New York State Barge Canal. The new canal replaced much of the original route, leaving many abandoned sections (most notably between Syracuse and Rome) and sought to 'canalize' rivers along the way that the original canal sought to avoid, such as the Mohawk, Seneca and Clyde Rivers, and Oneida Lake. In sections which didn't consist of canalized rivers (particularly between Rochester and Buffalo), the original Erie Canal channel was enlarged to 120 feet in width and 12 feet in depth. This expensive undertaking for the purpose of allowing barges of up to 2000 tons was politically unpopular in some parts of the state not served by the canal, and failed to save it from becoming obsolete.
   The new alignment began on the Hudson River at the border between Cohoes and Waterford, where it ran northwest cross-country with five locks, running into the Mohawk River east of Crescent. While the old canal ran next to the Mohawk River all the way to Rome, the new canal generally ran through the river, straightened or widened where necessary. At Ilion the new canal left the river for good, but continued to run on a new alignment parallel to both the river and the old canal to Rome. From Rome the new route continued almost due west, merging with Fish Creek just east of its entry into Oneida Lake.
   On the west side of Oneida Lake, the new canal left along the Oneida River, with cutoffs to shorten the route. At Three Rivers the Oneida River turns northwest, and was deepened for the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario. The new Erie Canal turned south there along the Seneca River, which turns west near Syracuse and continues west to a point in the Montezuma Marsh . There the Cayuga and Seneca Canal continued south with the Seneca River, and the Erie Canal began to run once again parallel to the old canal along the bottom of the Niagara Escarpment, in some places running along the Clyde River, and in some places replacing the old canal. At Pittsford, southeast of Rochester, the canal turned west to run around the south side of Rochester, rather than through downtown, rejoining the old path near North Gates. From there it was again roughly an upgrade to the original canal, running west to Lockport and southwest to Tonawanda, where the new alignment simply emptied into the Niagara River.
   Due to the growth of the highway system, railroads, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway, commercial traffic on the canal declined dramatically during the second half of the twentieth century. Since the 1990s, use of the Canal system has been primarily by recreational traffic, although a very limited amount of commercial traffic still uses the system. The Erie Canal is open to small craft and some larger vessels for most of the year. During the winter, water is drained from parts of the canal, enabling repairs and maintenance. The annual boating season runs from May through November. In 1992, the New York State Barge Canal was renamed the New York State Canal System (including the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca, Oswego and Champlain Canals) and was put under the authority of the newly created New York State Canal Corporation, a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority. Today the Erie Canal Corridor covers 524 miles (843 km) of navigable water from Lake Champlain to the Capital Region and west to Lake Erie. The area has a population of 2.7 million, and it has been estimated that about 75% of upstate New York's population lives within 25 miles (40 km) of the Erie Canal. In 2006, recreational boating usage fees were eliminated in hopes of attracting more visitors to the canal system. The canal system is currently operated using money generated by Thruway tolls.
   The Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain, and the Chambly Canal and Richelieu River in Canada form the Lakes to Locks Passage, making a tourist attraction of the former waterway linking eastern Canada to the Erie Canal.
   Travel on the Canal's middle section (particularly in the Mohawk River valley) was severely hampered during destructive flooding in Upstate New York in late June and early July 2006. Flood damage to the canal system and its facilities was estimated at at least $15 million.

The Old Erie Canal

Sections of the old Erie Canal abandoned after 1918 are owned by New York State, or have been ceded to or purchased by counties or municipalities. Many stretches of the old canal have been filled in to create roads such as Erie Boulevard in Syracuse, and Broad Street and the Rochester Subway in Rochester. A 36-mile (58-km) stretch of the old canal is preserved by the state of New York at Old Erie Canal State Historic Park, and in 1960 the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, a section of the canal that lies in Montgomery County, was among the first sites recognized as a National Historic Landmark.
   Some local municipalities have also elected to preserve their sections of the canal as town or county canal parks, or have plans to do so. In some communities, the old canal has been cleared of overgrowth and debris and has been refilled with water. Proposals have been made to rehydrate the old canal where it once traveled through downtown Rochester or Syracuse, as a potential tourist attraction. (In Syracuse, the location of the old canal is represented by a reflecting pool in downtown's Clinton Square and the downtown hosts a canal barge and weigh lock structure, now dry.) In 2004, the administration of New York governor George Pataki was criticized when it was discovered that officials of the New York State Canal Corporation (a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority) had attempted to sell private development rights to large stretches of the Old Erie Canal to a single developer for a mere US$30,000, far less than the land was worth on the open market. After an investigation by the Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper, the Pataki administration later nullified the deal.
   The creation of a unified, statewide Erie Canal historic trail system or greenway to attract tourism has been an elusive goal since the concept was first proposed in the 1990s. However, many communities along the Old Erie Canal have made significant progress in establishing new parks, improving the quality of existing towpaths, and raising funding for restoration of old canal structures such as locks and aqueducts. Biking, hiking, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, horseback riding, canoeing and fishing are among the recreational activities being promoted.
   The towpath is a good choice for an easy multi-day bicycle vacation stopping in several of the towns along the way. Many have accommodations such as B&Bs, motels and campsites and welcome visitors to the Canal. For more information, check the website of (External Link

) Parks and Trails New York Canalway Corridor; they offer information on the canal on their website as well as selling a handy guidebook (latest edition 2007) to the system complete with waterproof trail maps and information on nearby places to have a meal, spend the night or visit a spot of historical interest.
Parks and museums on the Old Erie Canal include:

Erie Canal Village near Rome
Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum near Chittenango
Old Erie Canal State Historic Park in Dewitt
Erie Canal Museum in downtown Syracuse
Camillus Erie Canal Park in Camillus
Niagara Escarpment five flight locks at Lockport
Jordan Canal Park in Jordan, town of Elbridge
Centerport Aqueduct Park near Weedsport
Lock Berlin Park near Clyde
Old Erie Canal Lock 60 Park in Macedon
Macedon Aqueduct Park near Palmyra

Locks

The following list of locks are provided for the current canal, from east to west:
Note: There is no Lock 1 or Lock 31 on the Erie Canal. The place of "Lock 1" on the passage from the lower Hudson to Lake Erie is taken by the Federal Lock, located just north of Troy, NY, and isn't part of the Erie Canal System proper.

Lock #	Location	Elevation(upstream / west)	Elevation(downstream / east)	Lift	Distance to Next Lock(upstream / west)
2	Waterford	48.9 feet	15.3 feet	33.6 feet	E3, 0.28 miles
3	Waterford	83.5 feet	48.9 feet	34.6 feet	E4, 0.62 miles
4	Waterford	118.1 feet	83.5 feet	34.6 feet	E5, 0.16 miles
5	Waterford	151.4 feet	118.1 feet	33.3 feet	E6, 0.28 miles
6	Waterford	184.4 feet	151.4 feet	33 feet	E7, 10.83 miles
7	Niskayuna	211.4 feet	184.4 feet	27 feet	E8, 10.83 miles
8	Glenville	225.4 feet	211.4 feet	14 feet	E9, 4.82 miles
9	Rotterdam	240.4 feet	225.4 feet	15 feet	E10, 6.16 miles
10	Cranesville	255.4 feet	240.4 feet	15 feet	E11, 4.05 miles
11	Amsterdam	267.4 feet	255.4 feet	12 feet	E12, 4.57 miles
12	Tribes Hill	278.4 feet	267.4 feet	11 feet	E13, 9.68 miles
13	Randall	286.4 feet	278.4 feet	8 feet	E14, 7.9 miles
14	Canajoharie	294.4 feet	286.4 feet	8 feet	E15, data unavailable
15	Fort Plain	302.4 feet	294.4 feet	8 feet	E16, data unavailable
16	Mindenville	322.9 feet	302.4 feet	20.5 feet	E17, data unavailable
17	Little Falls	363.4 feet	322.9 feet	40.5 feet	E18, data unavailable
18	Jacksonburg	383.4 feet	363.4 feet	20 feet	E19, data unavailable
19	Frankfort	404.4 feet	383.4 feet	21 feet	E20, data unavailable
20	Careys Corners	420.4 feet	404.4 feet	16 feet	E21, data unavailable
21	Rome	395.4 feet	420.4 feet	25 feet	E22, data unavailable
22	Rome	370.1 feet	395.4 feet	25.3 feet	E23, data unavailable
23	Brewerton	363 feet	370.1 feet	7.1 feet	E24, data unavailable
24	Baldwinsville	374 feet	363 feet	11 feet	E25, 30.75 miles
25	Mays Point	380 feet	374 feet	6 feet	E26, 5.84 miles
26	Clyde	386 feet	380 feet	6 feet	E27, 12.06 miles
27	Lyons	398.5 feet	386 feet	12.5 feet	E28A, 1.25 miles
28A	Lyons	418 feet	398.5 feet	19.5 feet	E28B, 3.93 miles
28B	Newark	430 feet	418 feet	12 feet	E29, 9.7 miles
29	Palmyra	446 feet	430 feet	16 feet	E30, 3 miles
30	Macedon	462.4 feet	446 feet	16.4 feet	E32, 16.1 miles
32	Pittsford	487.5 feet	462.4 feet	25.1 feet	E33, 1.3 miles
33	Henrietta	512.9 feet	487.5 feet	25.4 feet	E34/35, 64.2 miles
34	Lockport	539.5 feet	514.9 feet		E35, 0 miles
35	Lockport	564 feet	539.5 feet	24.5 feet	Black Rock Lock in Niagara River, 26 miles

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