As we face the new decade and continue to enjoy the Erie Canal in both its present state and its historical remnants, you are encouraged to explore the canal and its environs. Two hundred years later, , is the celebration of the bicentennial of this historic event.
Proposed in and completed in , the canal links the waters of Lake Erie in the west to the Hudson River in the east. An engineering marvel when it was built, some called it the Eighth Wonder of the World. In order to open the country west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlers and to offer a cheap and safe way to carry produce to a market, the construction of a canal was proposed as early as It was not until that the state legislature funded a survey for a canal that would connect to Lake Erie.
Finally, on July 4, , the construction of the canal began. In those early days, it was often sarcastically referred to as "Clinton's Big Ditch".
However, two years after construction began, the first section of the canal, between Rome and Utica, saw the beginning of commercial traffic. Use of the canal expanded as other sections were completed. When finally completed on October 26, , it was the engineering marvel of its day.
Its peak cargo carrying year was After more modern technology oil pipelines, our Interstate Highway System, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway began to obsolete the Erie Barge Canal as a cargo carrying waterway.
As cargo declined, recreational boats began utilizing the canal and in New York State began a series of improvements and upgrades with recreational boating and tourism in mind. Some vessels use the canal as a destination. In over 1, vessels were on this cruise and passed through the Erie Canal.
Being raised or lowered 20 feet inside the lock walls is an experience not soon forgotten. All four canals are contemporary and fully operational. Edit Profile Log Out.
From inside the prison walls, he wrote a series of essays in which he laid out his case for the construction of a great canal across the state of New York, from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffallo, on Lake Erie. Not everyone, however, was convinced. The idea of a canal connecting the Atlantic to the interior was not entirely new.
It was reportedly a favorite topic of discussion by President George Washington. But in addition to the technical challenges, there were vehement disagreements over whether the US Constitution allowed the federal government to pay for any public works project — particularly one that would benefit only a portion of the country.
If a canal was going to be built, it would fall upon the State of New York to finance and oversee the project. New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton was perpetually on the lookout for bold, ambitious ideas that might help his city secure its place as the economic powerhouse of the United States. The idea was to make New York City the center of the world. Then it was time to get to work. Much of the hard labor fell to thousands of New York farmers armed with shovels, hand tools, and of course, their beasts of burden — in this case, horses and oxen.
First, he would climb the tree and attach one end of a long chain or cable. A chain was wrapped around the stump and then attached to a series of wheels and a spool nearly 14 feet across and 16 feet high, its cables pulled by a team of oxen. And when workers hit stone, they had to start blasting. But the real engineering marvel of the Erie Canal was built to overcome another hurdle: a foot elevation change between the Hudson River and Lake Erie.
The boat enters a chamber, which is either filled or drained, lifting or lowering the vessel before the gate on the other side opens and releases it.
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