Everywhere we go, there's always a fascinating history. I knew Saratoga Springs was a battleground of the Revolutionary War, but I didn't know Washington's victory convinced the French to 'invest' in the Colonial's war against Great Britain. I knew there was a famous horse race track here, but I didn't know gambling was really the oil that fueled the prosperity of this town.
I knew the Dutch were the original settlers of New York, and as we've toured around, it has become obvious settlement just sort of drifted north and west from New York City and the Atlantic coast. Gradually, the English settlers outnumbered the Dutch, but some towns retained their Dutch heritage, language, and culture. I didn't think there would be many surprises beyond what I already knew about the history of the area.
And, then, I learned about the Erie Canal. Well, that's a NAME we all know from our first American History class, but the significance of it has been lost in history. First, the logistics: It's basically a 40 foot deep ditch dug between Buffalo and Albany. The Erie Canal was a waterway between the Lake Erie and the Hudson River which flowed into the Atlantic Ocean at New York City. In 1825 roads were few, and what ones there were became easily impassable with the slightest adverse weather. Rivers were navigable for small distances by shallow draft boats, and there were many portages around water obstacles.
The Erie Canal construction began in 1817 and was completed by 1825. The then current and former Presidents of the United States, including Thomas Jefferson, thought the canal was a preposterous idea, and the federal government refused any funds toward its construction. So, DeWitt Clinton, the Governor of New York, employed massive eminent domain powers as well as seizing Native American lands, and then begged and bullied New York financiers to back $7 million dollars in bonds to construct the canal. The success of the Erie Canal was almost instantaneous, and its success launched a flurry of other canal projects.
Construction of the canal was no picnic. First, it was over 300 miles though dense forest. The work was halted by the severe winters. There was the tiny problem of the Niagara Escarpment to overcome. The lock system finally devised though the escarpment had never been done before.
The construction of the canal required 'on the job training' as there were no civil engineers, nor any engineering school in the United States of the early 19th century. Many of the techniques to build the canal were devised by Benjamin Wright,
today known as the father of American Civil Engineering, and the founder of the first engineering school in the United States at Renssalear, New York. The initial canal was 363 miles in length, most of it cut through the dense forests of upstate New York. It was built, then rebuilt to compete with the railroads, and then rebuilt again before it finally became completely obsolete due to the competition by the railroads and the completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Today, most of the first canal is gone, and the 'towpath' manned by oxen and mules pulling the 'packet boats' is also mostly gone. In the 21st century the Erie Canal is a tourist boat ride of a few miles.
The significance of the Erie Canal can not be underestimated. It opened up the Midwest for settlement. Farmers with farms full of worn out soil in New England, particularly Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont, were able to pull up stakes, and ride the 'packet boats' of the Erie Canal to new, virgin farm lands.
Farmers in the Midwest suddenly had a market for their goods and produce. The cost to move goods to the markets in the East decreased 90% when the Erie Canal went into operation. New York City went from the 4th largest port in the United States to the largest port. The increased commerce and people passing through fueled the sleepy little towns of Buffalo, and Albany into major cities in the 19th century. The Erie Canal cemented New York City as the premiere city of country as it became the financial hub of the country.
Today, the Erie Canal is part of a waterway system which will allow a boat to traverse from Chicago to the Florida Keys and back again. There are actually 'snow boaters' who follow the good weather in both directions. This inland system of canals is so extensive that a boater is only on the ocean for 35 miles between Chicago and Keys. This past week, we took a tourist boat ride on the Canal, and we were following a pleasure yacht well know to the tourist boat Captain as one of those snow boaters.
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We are following the yacht - on it's way back to Florida -
through a lock on the Erie Canal |
Today, the Erie Canal is a pretty tame and even quaint waterway.
It feels sleepy and irrelevant in this time of jet airplanes, the world wide web, and space travel. However, in the 19th century the Erie Canal transformed our economy, and was a spigot that poured native and immigrant settlers into a frontier which has become the food basket of the United States. The commerce the canal generated was the turning point for New York City. It fired the public imagination and became a symbol of what could be accomplished by a combination of political will, innovation and hard work.
If you want to see more pictures of the actual canal as well as an exhibition of how it was built, as always, just click on the picture links.
