The waterway that accelerated American history by half a century
 |
"Lockport, Erie Canal" by W.H. Bartlett |
After nearly a century of useful life, the Erie Canal in upper New York state has become a prime tourist attraction. Remaining waterway segments and some old structures along its original route are open for public enjoyment—and a lesson in history.
Before roads or railroads, and triggered by the unforeseen demands of the War of 1812, it became abundantly clear that Great Lakes commerce from young America’s interior and Atlantic coastal shipping needed to be connected.
Driven by the economic and political climate of those times, on July 4, 1817, work commenced to build a canal to link Lake Erie at Buffalo eastward 300 miles to the Hudson River at Albany. July 4 was chosen as the starting date because it marked America’s first national holiday.
 |
The Erie Canal cross section was built as an inverted trapezoid, 40 feet wide at the surface, 28 feet wide at the bottom and four feet deep. To accommodate Lake Erie’s surface elevation (440 feet higher than the Hudson’s tidewater at Albany), the system incorporated locks to raise and lower the cargo barges and passenger packets. The boats were powered by mules trudging the marginal towpaths. Canal-lock technology had been sufficiently developed in 18th-century Europe, and excavation was just a matter of the number of men employed to move the earth by hand.
There is no record of the total number of construction workers, though thousands were hired locally as the digging wave passed through. Work progressed in both directions from the middle (planners eschewed the idea of working inward from both ends because of lack of confidence that the sections would meet in alignment). Workers built bridges to carry foot and horse traffic across the dig.
 |
When completed in 1825, the Erie Canal quickly gained popularity. Regarded as a triumph of art over nature, it established commerce as king. It also made New York the gateway city to the continental interior—the predominant East Coast U.S. port city, superseding Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia—thus altering the history of our national growth.
But in less than a decade, the Erie Canal became too small for its traffic volume, so in 1836, work began to enlarge it to 70 feet at the top, 52 feet at the bottom, and to a seven-foot depth. The initial building cost, estimated at $6 million, finished at over $7 million. The enlargement was estimated at $23.5 million and finished at $36.5 million.
A major economic slump, higher taxes and politics halted the enlargement project from 1842 to 1847. Then the Irish potato famine brought hordes of immigrants who became a copious source of cheap, earnest labor. Unlike the men of the first digging, they kept their jobs, and moved on with the progress.
 |
About the time President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, the New York State Legislature declared the Erie Canal Enlargement Project complete. The Erie Canal, a paradox of progress accomplished by civil engineers, opened the great American West for the East Coast, and for the rest of the world.
A National Registered Historic Landmark, the 1850 masonry structure—a weighlock building where tolls were once collected along the route—is home to the Erie Canal Museum. It’s situated on a bit of the old canal at 318 Erie Blvd. East, in Syracuse. The only remaining structure of its kind, it's open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
And as of this year, the newly refurbished Seneca Museum of Waterways and Industry at 89 Fall St. in Seneca Falls has three floors of exhibits of canal-related memorabilia on display. For a modest admittance charge, you can pass a day among the memories.
 |
Erie Canal’s Original Construction
• Constructed from 1817 to 1825
• Supported boats carrying 30 tons of freight
• Connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie and was 363 miles long
• Cost $7 million to build
Today’s Erie / New York State Barge Canal
• Enlarged from 1905 to 1918
• New canal supports barges with 2,000 tons of cargo
• Now crosses New York state and is 580 miles long
• Cost $105 million to enlarge