While today it may seem passé to some, when the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it was the engineering marvel of the 19th Century.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Allegheny Mountains were the Western Frontier of America. The Northwest Territories that would later become Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio were rich in timber, minerals, and land for farming. But it took weeks to reach.
New York Governor DeWitt Clinton envisioned a better way: a canal from Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Erie to Albany on the upper Hudson River. In 1817, Clinton convinced the state legislature to authorize $7 million for construction of a Canal 363 miles long, 40 feet wide and four feet deep. When its planning began, there was no school of engineering in the United States. With the exception of a few places where black powder was used to blast through rock formations, all 363 miles were built by the muscle power of men and horses.
In 1825, Governor Clinton officially opened the Erie Canal as he sailed the packet boat Seneca Chief from Buffalo to Albany. After traveling from the mouth of the Erie to New York City, he emptied two casks of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean, celebrating the first connection of waters from East to West in the ceremonial “Marriage of the Waters”.
WHAT THE ERIE CANAL ACCOMPLISHED
The effect of the canal was immediate and dramatic. Settlers poured west, and the explosion of trade predicted by Governor Clinton began. The impetus for the dramatic increase in trade came down to dollars and cents —freight rates from Buffalo to New York were $10 per ton by canal, compared with $100 per ton by road. In 1829, 3,640 bushels of wheat were transported down the canal from Buffalo. By 1837 this figure had increased to 500,000 bushels; four years later it reached one million.
In nine years, canal tolls more than recouped the entire cost of construction. Within 15 years of the Canal’s opening, New York was the busiest port in America, moving more than Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans combined.
The Erie Canal’s success spurred a canal-building boom in New York in the 1820s. Between 1823 and 1828, several lateral canals opened including the Champlain, the Oswego and the Cayuga-Seneca.
Between 1835 and the turn of the century, this network of canals was enlarged twice to accommodate heavier traffic. Between 1905 and 1918, the canals were enlarged again. This time, in order to accommodate much larger barges, the engineers decided to abandon much of the original man-made channel and use new techniques to “canalize” the rivers that the canal had been constructed to avoid the Mohawk, Oswego, Seneca, Clyde and Oneida Lake. A uniform channel was dredged; dams were built to create long, navigable pools, and locks were built adjacent to the dams to allow the barges to pass from one pool to the next.
When it opened in 1918, the whole system was renamed the New York State Barge Canal.
With growing competition from railroads and highways, and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, commercial traffic on the canal system declined dramatically in the latter part of the 20th century.
THE ERIE CANAL TODAY
The waterway network was renamed again. As the New York State Canal System, it is enjoying a rebirth as a recreational and historic resource. The Erie Canal played an integral role in the transformation of New York City into the nation’s leading port, a national identity that continues to be reflected in many songs, legends and artwork today.
In 2001, designated as the nation’s 23rd National Heritage Corridor, the New York State
Canal System joined the ranks of America’s most treasured historical resources. Comprised of four canals, the system is historically significant for the many contributions it has made to establish New York State as an international center of commerce and finance.
Phil Robertson, Editor
