How long is the Erie Canal?
Economic history of the United States
The 325-mile Erie Canal, which connected Albany, New York, on the Hudson River with Buffalo, New York, on Lake Erie, began operation in 1825. Wagon cost from Buffalo to New York City in 1817 was 19.2 cents per ton-mile. By Erie Canal c. 1857 to 1860 the cost was 0.81 cents. The Erie Canal was a great commercial success and had a large regional economic impact.
Erie Canal
From there it was again roughly an upgrade to the original canal, running west to Lockport. This reach of 64.2 miles from Henrietta to Lockport is called "the 60‑mile level" since there are no locks and the water level rises only two feet over the entire segment. Diversions from and to adjacent natural streams along the way are used to maintain the canal's level. It runs southwest to Tonawanda, where the new alignment discharges into the Niagara River, which is navigable upstream to the New York Barge Canal's Black Rock Lock and thence to the Canal's original "Western Terminus" at Buffalo's Inner Harbor.
Miami and Erie Canal
The Miami and Erie never proved to be as profitable as the state government had hoped, as within several years of being completed to Lake Erie it had to compete with railroads. These offered greater speed and capacity for both passengers and goods. Factors limiting the canal's success included the lower population and level of economic development in Ohio, compared to that of New York when its canal was completed. Second, while New York had one canal that was located at the bottleneck of Great Lakes trade, Ohio had two canals, which spread usage too thinly. Third, was the expense of building and maintaining the canals. While the Erie Canal was 363 miles in length, with an elevation change of 700 feet, the combined length of Ohio's canals was 557 miles, with an elevation change of 2,096 feet. Compared to operations of the Erie Canal, the Ohio canal system had less trade and fewer passengers, while it had to operate over a longer length, and at a greater expense.
Erie Canal
All locks on the New York State Canal System are single-chamber; the dimensions are long and wide with a minimum depth of water over the miter sills at the upstream gates upon lift. They can accommodate a vessel up to long and wide. Overall sidewall height will vary by lock, ranging between depending on the lift and navigable stages. Lock E17 at Little Falls has the tallest sidewall height at .
History of turnpikes and canals in the United States
Canal companies had also been chartered in the states, and like turnpikes these early canals were constructed, owned, and operated by private joint-stock companies. Of all the canals projected for construction, only three had been completed when the War of 1812 broke out: the Dismal Swamp Canal in Virginia, the Santee Canal in South Carolina, and the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts.
After the war, New York authorized construction of the Erie Canal in 1817. Proposed by Governor of New York De Witt Clinton, the Erie was the first canal project undertaken as a public good to be financed at public risk through the issuance of bonds. When the project was completed in 1825, the canal linked the Hudson River to Lake Erie via 83 separate locks and over a distance of .
Erie Canal
In 2004, the administration of New York Governor George Pataki was criticized when officials of New York State Canal Corporation attempted to sell private development rights to large stretches of the Old Erie Canal to a single developer for $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 nullified the deal.
Records of the planning, design, construction, and administration of the Erie Canal are vast and can be found in the New York State Archives. Except for two years (1827–1829), the State of New York did not require canal boat operators to maintain or submit passenger lists.
Soldiers and Sailors Monument (Syracuse, New York)
The Syracuse section of the Erie Canal was filled in and paved over in 1925, to create Erie Boulevard. The monument's original granite plaza measured 50 ft (15.24 m) by 150 ft (45.72 m), but the sections east and west of its central portion were removed in the 1930s, and replaced by landscaping. A reflecting pool that traces the canal's former path was constructed alongside the monument in 2001. It features fountain jets in warm weather and becomes an iceskating rink in winter.
Erie County, New York
Erie County is a highly populated county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo. The county's name comes from Lake Erie. It was named by European colonists for the regional Iroquoian language-speaking Erie tribe of Native Americans, who lived south and east of the lake before 1654. (They were pushed out of the area by the more powerful Iroquoian nations.)
Chenango Canal
The main artery Erie Canal was built between 1817 and 1825 and provided the key link in a water highway to what would become the Midwestern United States, connecting to the Great Lakes at Buffalo. It connected the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and then to the port of New York City. The Erie made use of the favorable conditions of New York's unique topography which provided that area with the only break in the Appalachian range—allowing for east-west navigation from the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes. The canal system gave New York State a competitive advantage, helped New York City develop as an international trade center, and allowed Buffalo to grow from just 2,000 settlers in 1820 to over 18,000 people by 1840. The port of New York became essentially the Atlantic home port for all of the Great Lakes states. It was because of this vital and critical connection that New York State became known as the Empire State.
Prescott Metcalf
Metcalf was well known for his role as a lake traffic manager for the steamship businesses owned by Rufus S. Reed and Charles Manning Reed, with whom he became acquainted in 1840. The three were involved in the development and operation of the Erie Extension Canal. Metcalf held the title of director of the canal at one time and owned a fleet of canal boats labeled the P. M. Line, nicknamed by locals as the Poor Man's Line. He pioneered the establishment of the Erie and Pittsburgh and Erie and North East railroads. He also helped to incorporate several manufacturing firms in Erie, including the Erie Gas Works and the Erie Malleable Iron Works. Metcalf was also able to get the Burdett Organ Company to relocate to Erie by building them a plant in 90 days and employing 120 persons. Metcalf developed commercial properties in central downtown Erie. Metcalf was on the board of the Park Presbyterian Church and the Erie Cemetery (which he had helped incorporate). By 1860, Metcalf was a wealthy coal merchant and owned $43,000 worth of property ($981,000 in today's money). Metcalf served as mayor of Erie from 1862 to 1864 and held no other political office after his term ended. He was initially a member of the Whig Party, but switched to the Republican Party.
Erie Canal Commission
Until 1844 the term of the commissioners was indefinite. The Act of May 6, 1844, established a four-year term, while vacancies were filled by concurrent resolution of both houses of the State Legislature, or during the recess of the Legislature, temporarily by the Governor, and a substitute was elected at the next State election if there was a remainder of the term. The Constitution of 1846 shortened the term to three years.
Maritime history of the United States (1800–99)
The Erie Canal was started in 1817 and finished in 1825, encouraging inland trade and strengthening the position of the port of New York.
Livingston County, New York
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 brought prosperity across the state and realization of the benefits of internal navigation. The Genesee Valley lacked access to broader markets other than via the Genesee River, often too dangerous to navigate. Planners envisioned a lateral canal, cutting through the core of Livingston County, as the means of uniting the Erie Canal with the Allegany River, thereby connecting the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, allowing freight and passenger transportation all the way to New Orleans.
Erie Canal
There were some 42 commercial shipments on the canal in 2008, compared to 15 such shipments in 2007 and more than 33,000 shipments in 1855, the canal's peak year. The new growth in commercial traffic is due to the rising cost of diesel fuel. Canal barges can carry a short ton of cargo on one gallon of diesel fuel, while a gallon allows a train to haul the same amount of cargo and a truck . Canal barges can carry loads up to , and are used to transport objects that would be too large for road or rail shipment. Today, the system is served by several commercial towing companies. In 2012, the New York State Canal System (which consists of the Erie Canal and a few smaller canals) was used to ship 42,000 tons of cargo.
Erie Canal
Gouverneur Morris and Elkanah Watson were early proponents of a canal along the Mohawk River. Their efforts led to the creation of the "Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Companies" in 1792, which took the first steps to improve navigation on the Mohawk and construct a canal between the Mohawk and Lake Ontario, but it was soon discovered that private financing was insufficient.
Christopher Colles (who was familiar with the Bridgewater Canal) surveyed the Mohawk Valley, and made a presentation to the New York state legislature in 1784, proposing a shorter canal from Lake Ontario. The proposal drew attention and some action but was never implemented.
DeWitt Clinton
While governor, Clinton was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal. He was persuaded by Canal proponent Jesse Hawley to support construction of a canal from the eastern shore of Lake Erie to the upper Hudson River. Many thought the project was impracticable, and opponents mocked it as "DeWitt's Ditch". But in 1817, he got the legislature to appropriate $7 million for construction. When the canal was finished in 1825, Governor Clinton opened it, sailing in the packet boat "Seneca Chief" along the canal into Buffalo. After sailing from the mouth of Lake Erie to New York City he emptied two casks of water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor, celebrating the first connection of waters from East to West. The canal was an immense success, carrying huge amounts of passenger and freight traffic. The cost of freight between Buffalo and Albany fell from $100 to $10 per ton, and the state was able to quickly recoup the funds it spent on the project through tolls along the canal. The completion of the canal brought about a significant shift in public opinion on Clinton, who was now hailed for completing the canal. This change in public opinion was reflected in the newspapers of the time. Previously being filled with harsh criticisms of Clinton and the canal, they now celebrated his accomplishment. For example, an article in the New Hampshire Sentinel began saying, "The efforts of Gov. Clinton to advance the best interest of the State over which he presides are very generally acknowledged both by his constituents and the public abroad. His exertions in favor of the great canal have identified his name with that noble enterprise, and he will be remembered while its benefits are experienced," and ended with "Yield credit to Clinton, and hail him by name".
Canal
Canal companies were initially chartered by individual states in the United States. These early canals were constructed, owned, and operated by private joint-stock companies. Three were completed when the War of 1812 broke out; these were the Santee Canal (opened 1800) in South Carolina, the Middlesex Canal (opened 1802) in Massachusetts and the Dismal Swamp Canal (opened 1805) in Virginia. The Erie Canal (opened 1825) was chartered and owned by the state of New York and financed by bonds bought by private investors. The Erie canal runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie. The Hudson River connects Albany to the Atlantic port of New York City and the Erie Canal completed a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of around 565 ft. (169 m). The Erie Canal with its easy connections to most of the U.S. mid-west and New York City soon quickly paid back all its invested capital (US$7 million) and started turning a profit. By cutting transportation costs in half or more it became a large profit center for Albany and New York City as it allowed the cheap transportation of many of the agricultural products grown in the mid west of the United States to the rest of the world. From New York City these agricultural products could easily be shipped to other U.S. states or overseas. Assured of a market for their farm products the settlement of the U.S. mid-west was greatly accelerated by the Erie Canal. The profits generated by the Erie Canal project started a canal building boom in the United States that lasted until about 1850 when railroads started becoming seriously competitive in price and convenience. The Blackstone Canal (finished in 1828) in Massachusetts and Rhode Island fulfilled a similar role in the early industrial revolution between 1828 and 1848. The Blackstone Valley was a major contributor of the American Industrial Revolution where Samuel Slater built his first textile mill.
Erie Canal Lock 52 Complex
Erie Canal Lock 52 Complex is a national historic district located at Port Byron and Mentz in Cayuga County, New York. The district includes two contributing buildings (the Erie House and the blacksmith shop / mule barn); three contributing engineering structures (Erie Canal Lock 52, culvert, and canal prism of the enlarged Erie Canal); and archaeological sites associated with the canal operations. Lock 52 was constructed 1849-1853 as part of the Enlarged Erie Canal program. It remained in operation until the rerouting of the canal under the New York State Barge Canal System in 1917. The Erie House was built in 1894 and is a two-story frame structure that housed a saloon and hotel.
Technological and industrial history of the United States
Numerous canal companies had also been chartered; but of all the canals projected, only three had been completed when the War of 1812 began: the Dismal Swamp Canal in Virginia, the Santee Canal in South Carolina, and the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts. It remained for New York to usher in a new era in internal communication by authorizing in 1817 the construction of the Erie Canal. This bold bid for Western trade alarmed the merchants of Philadelphia, particularly as the completion of the national road threatened to divert much of their traffic to Baltimore. In 1825, the legislature of Pennsylvania grappled with the problem by projecting a series of canals which were to connect its great seaport with Pittsburgh on the west and with Lake Erie and the upper Susquehanna on the north. The Blackstone Canal, (1823–1828) in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and the Morris Canal across northern New Jersey (1824–1924) soon followed, along with the Illinois and Michigan Canal from Chicago to the Illinois River(1824–1848).
Erie Canal Commission
After much deliberation, the Commission turned their findings into a report that they submitted in March 1811. Rejecting Porter’s ideas of running the canal either to Lake Ontario, or through his lands to Lake Erie, the commissioners decided that the canal had to run straight to Lake Erie. Otherwise, the St. Lawrence River would still be a primary route of transportation and the West would not be connected to the East. They also rejected Morris’s proposition of a natural waterway created by the overflow of Lake Erie in favor of an entirely artificial waterway. The final and most important section of the report demanded public financing and control of the canal by the State of New York. Citing past failures such as Eddy’s company, and George Washington’s Patowmack Company, the Commission stated that such large endeavors were too expensive for private financing.
Erie Canal
Other competition was more direct. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad opened in 1837, 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 later became 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 1902, when tolls were abolished.
Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad (1848–1869)
The Erie Canal, linking New York City with Buffalo, New York, (via Albany and the Hudson River) opened in 1825 and proved to be a financial boon to merchants in New York City. The canal also gave cities on the Great Lakes a transportation cost advantage equal to that of cities on the Ohio River (then the major east-west transportation route for both goods and people west of the Appalachians). Encouraged by the canal's success, railroads began rapid construction in interior regions to link isolated markets to the canals and to other railroads.
Erie Canal Commission
Finally, after the United States made peace with Great Britain, officials could turn their attention towards the canal, which they did in a public meeting in New York City on December 3, 1815. The board sparked interest by emphasizing the benefits the city would receive from the canal. Despite minor setbacks, the meeting was a huge success. Even though President Madison vetoed a bill that provided funding for one quarter of the canal, the Commission convinced the State Legislature to go ahead with construction.
Parks &amp; Trails New York
Since 1998, Parks & Trails New York has been working in partnership with the New York State Canal Corporation to help communities along the 524-mile NYS Canal System organize, plan, and develop the Canalway Trail and to build awareness of the Erie Canal corridor as a premier destination for bicyclists and other outdoor enthusiasts. A new report from PTNY and the Canalway Trails Association New York (CTANY), "Closing the Gaps: A Progress Report on the Erie Canalway Trail", cites the progress being made to close the five remaining gaps in the 365-mile canalway trail. PTNY's campaign to Close the Gaps, endorsed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the fall of 2010, has generated dramatically renewed interest in completing the trail among citizens, community leaders, and elected officials at all levels of government. Also, PTNY publishes a Canalway Trail Times newsletter, giving updates and information surrounding the Canalway Trail.
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal was an immediate success. Tolls collected on freight had already exceeded the state's construction debt in its first year of official operation. By 1828, import duties collected at the New York Customs House supported federal government operations and provided funds for all the expenses in Washington except the interest on the national debt. Additionally, New York State's initial loan for the original canal had been paid by 1837. Although it had been envisioned as primarily a commercial channel for freight boats, passengers also traveled on the canal's packet boats. In 1825 more than 40,000 passengers took advantage of the convenience and beauty of canal travel. The canal's steady flow of tourists, businessmen and settlers lent it to uses never imagined by its initial sponsors. Evangelical preachers made their circuits of the upstate region, and the canal served as the last leg of the Underground Railroad ferrying runaway slaves to Buffalo near the Canada–US border. Aspiring merchants found that tourists were reliable customers. Vendors moved from boat to boat peddling items such as books, watches and fruit, while less scrupulous "confidence men" sold remedies for foot corns or passed off counterfeit bills. Tourists were carried along the "northern tour," which ultimately led to the popular honeymoon destination Niagara Falls, just north of Buffalo.
Erie Canal Museum
The Erie Canal Museum is a historical museum about the Erie Canal located in Syracuse, New York. The museum was founded in 1962 and is a private, non-profit corporation. It is housed in the Syracuse Weighlock Building dating from 1850. The Syracuse Weighlock Building was in operation as a weighlock from 1850 to 1883. In 1883 the canal decided to stop charging tolls. The weighlock building was essentially used as a big, elaborate scale to weigh the boats traveling on the Erie Canal and determine how much each boat would pay for a toll. Today the museum includes not only artifacts from the Erie Canal, but also a gallery of present canal life. It is the mission of the museum to help people to learn the rich history of the Erie Canal and that it is not just a thing of the past, but still very much exists today in different forms.
Erie Canal
As the canal brought travelers to New York City, it took business away from other ports such as Philadelphia and Baltimore. Those cities and their states started projects to compete with 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.
Black River Canal
The Black River Canal was a canal built in northern New York in the United States to connect the Erie Canal to the Black River. The canal had 109 locks along its length. Remains of several of the canal's former locks are visible along New York State Route 12 near Boonville.
Sandy and Beaver Canal
At a meeting in Waynesburg, Ohio, in 1834, the canal promoters decided to go ahead without the Philadelphia backing. Hother Hage and Edward H. Gill were hired to engineer the project, and made changes to the Douglas plan. The canal, as constructed, consisted of the western division with a long aqueduct above the Tuscarawas River to connect to the Ohio and Erie Canal, 33 locks, five miles (8 km) of slackwater, two reservoirs, and a rise from at Bolivar to at Kensington. The middle division from Kensington to Lockbridge had two tunnels, and two reservoirs and was , all at 1120 feet. The big tunnel was 900 yards or 1060 yards long. The little tunnel was about long. The tunnels were about high, and the big tunnel was about below the highest elevation of the hill it penetrated. The Eastern division was from Lockbridge to Glasgow, lowering from to , with 57 locks, 20 dams, and of slackwater.
Enlarged Double Lock No. 33 Old Erie Canal
Enlarged Double Lock No. 33 Old Erie Canal is a historic Erie canal lock located at St. Johnsville in Montgomery County, New York. It was built in 1824 and enlarged in 1840. The south lock was enlarged in 1888. It is built entirely of large cut limestone blocks mortared with hydraulic cement. Lock 33 fell into disuse after the opening of the New York State Barge Canal in 1918. Since 1997, it has been reclaimed and restored by local volunteers.
Erie Canal
Additional feeder canals soon extended the Erie Canal into a system. These included the Cayuga-Seneca Canal south to the Finger Lakes, the Oswego Canal from Three Rivers north to Lake Ontario at Oswego, and the Champlain Canal from Troy north to Lake Champlain. From 1833 to 1877, the short Crooked Lake Canal 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 into the canal system. The Chenango Canal in 1836 connected the Erie Canal 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 rivers, was never built. The Genesee Valley Canal was later abandoned and became the route of the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad.
Canal pound
The longest canal pound in the United Kingdom is between the stop lock on the Trent and Mersey Canal at Preston Brook (Dutton Stop Lock No 76) and the start of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal near Leigh (Poolstock Bottom Lock No 2), a distance of . Another long pound is on the Kennet and Avon Canal between Wootton Rivers Bottom Lock and Caen Hill top lock. The longest level on the Erie Canal in New York was the 60 mile level (actually 64.2 miles) between Henrietta and Lockport.
Erie Canal
The entire canal was officially completed on October 26, 1825. The event was marked by a statewide "Grand Celebration," culminating in a series of cannon shots along the length of the canal and the Hudson, a 90-minute cannonade from Buffalo to New York City. A flotilla of boats, led by Governor Dewitt Clinton aboard "Seneca Chief", sailed from Buffalo to New York City over ten days. Clinton then ceremonially poured Lake Erie water into New York Harbor to mark the "Wedding of the Waters." On its return trip, "Seneca Chief" brought back a keg of Atlantic Ocean water, which was poured into Lake Erie by Buffalo's Judge Samuel Wilkeson, who would later become mayor.
Ohio and Erie Canal
The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio River near Portsmouth. It also had connections to other canal systems in Pennsylvania.
Michigan Territory
The Erie Canal opened in 1825, allowing settlers from New England and New York to reach Michigan by water through Albany and Buffalo.
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
The Erie Canal, built between 1817 and 1825, threatened traders south of New York City, who began to seek their own transportation infrastructure to link the burgeoning areas west of the Appalachian Mountains to mid-Atlantic markets and ports. As early as 1820, plans were being laid for a canal to link the Ohio River and Chesapeake Bay.
History of New York City (1784–1854)
New York, with a population of 96,000 in 1810, surged far beyond its rivals, reaching a population of 1,080,000 in 1860, compared to 566,000 in Philadelphia, 212,000 in Baltimore and 178,000 in Boston. Historian Robert Albion identifies four aggressive moves by New York entrepreneurs and politicians that helped it jump to the top of American cities. Of greatest importance, it sponsored the Erie Canal which began operations in 1825, forming a continuous water route from New York north to Albany via the Hudson River, then west to Buffalo using the new canal to reach the Great Lakes. It opened a large new market in upstate New York and the Old Northwest. New York set up an auction system that efficiently and rapidly sold imported cargoes to the highest bidder. Exporters from Britain discovered New York offered the best prices for their goods, and they increasingly ignored Boston and Philadelphia, where the local merchants tried to impose higher markups by avoiding auctions. New York began the world's first regular packet service to England with the Black Ball Line in 1818. By 1830, it dominated the nation's merchant marine. Ambitious shippers reached beyond the natural hinterland to open large-scale coastal trade, especially one that brought Southern cotton to New York for export to textile mills in the Northeast and in Europe, and carried manufactured products to the South. By 1830, 40 cents of every dollar the mills paid for cotton went to New York brokers to cover the cost of shipping. The main rivals, Boston Philadelphia and Baltimore, tried to compete with the Erie Canal by opening their own networks of canals and railroads; they never caught up. Manufacturing was not a major factor in the city's growth in the 19th century—factories were chiefly being built in towns and smaller cities with waterfalls and fast rivers that were harnessed to generate the power, or were closer to coal supplies.
Geography of New York (state)
Lake Erie forms a portion of the western boundary of the state. It is long, with an average width of , and it lies mostly west of the bounds of the state. It is above Lake Ontario, above sea level, and has an average depth of . The greatest depth ever obtained by soundings is . The harbors upon the lake are Buffalo, Silver Creek, Dunkirk, and Barcelona.
The Niagara River, forming the outlet of Lake Erie, is long, and, on average, more than a mile wide. About below Lake Erie the rapids commence; and further below are Niagara Falls. For below the falls the river has a rapid course between perpendicular, rocky banks, high, but below it emerges from the highlands and flows to Lake Ontario in a broad, deep, and majestic current.
Erie Canal
Jesse Hawley had envisioned encouraging the growing of large quantities of grain on the western New York plains (then largely unsettled) for sale on the Eastern seaboard. However, he went bankrupt trying to ship grain to the coast. While in Canandaigua debtors' prison, Hawley began pressing for the construction of a canal along the -long Mohawk River valley with support from Joseph Ellicott (agent for the Holland Land Company in Batavia). Ellicott realized that a canal would add value to the land he was selling in the western part of the state. He later became the first canal commissioner.
Erie Canal
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 placed under the newly created New York State Canal Corporation, a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority. While part of the Thruway, the canal system was operated using money generated by Thruway tolls.
Lockport (city), New York
The New York State Legislature authorized the Erie Canal's construction in April 1816. The route proposed by surveyors was to traverse an area in central Niagara County, New York, which was then "uncivilized" and free of White settlers. At the time, the nearest settlers were in nearby Cold Springs, New York. As it became known where the proposed canal was to be built, land speculators began to buy large plots along and near the proposed route of the canal. By December 1820, when the exact location of the step locks had been determined, the area that would become Lockport was owned by only fifteen men, many of whom were Quakers.
Erie Canal
In 1918, the Canal was replaced by the larger New York State Barge Canal. This new canal replaced much of the original route, leaving many abandoned sections (most notably between Syracuse and Rome). New digging and flood control technologies allowed engineers to canalize rivers that the original canal had sought to avoid, such as the Mohawk, Seneca, and Clyde rivers, and Oneida Lake. In sections that did not consist of canalized rivers (particularly between Rochester and Buffalo), the original Erie Canal channel was enlarged to wide and deep. The expansion allowed barges up to to use the Canal. This expensive project was politically unpopular in parts of the state not served by the canal, and failed to save it from becoming obsolete for commercial shipping.
Chenango Canal
The Erie Canal represented the first major water-works project in the United States. It proved the practicality of large-scale water diversions without disrupting the local environment. The canal connected the waters of Lake Erie to the tidewater of New York harbor in a multi-level route that followed the local terrain and was fed by local water sources. All of the New York branch canals would follow this model. With the Erie, as with all of the branch canals, water flow was required for several purposes: filling the canal at the beginning of each spring season; water for lockage, i.e., water loss from higher to lower levels; water loss by seepage through the berm and towpath banks and water diverted for industrial power usage. Consequently, flooding and droughts were perennial problems for all of the New York canals.
Erie Railroad
The New York and Erie Rail Road was chartered April 24, 1832 by Governor of New York, Enos T. Throop to connect the Hudson River at Piermont, north of New York City, west to Lake Erie at Dunkirk. On February 16, 1841 the railroad was authorized to cross into the northeast corner of Pennsylvania on the west side of the Delaware River. Construction began in 1836, and it opened from Piermont to Goshen on September 23, 1841. After some financial problems, construction resumed in August 1846, and the next section, to Port Jervis, opened on January 7, 1848. Further extensions opened to Binghamton December 27, 1848, Owego January 1, 1849, and the full length to Dunkirk May 19, 1851. At Dunkirk steamboats continued across Lake Erie to Detroit, Michigan.
Technological and industrial history of the United States
Like the turnpikes, the early canals were constructed, owned, and operated by private joint-stock companies but later gave way to larger projects funded by the states. The Erie Canal, proposed by Governor of New York De Witt Clinton, was the first canal project undertaken as a public good to be financed at the public risk through the issuance of bonds. When the project was completed in 1825, the canal linked Lake Erie with the Hudson River through 83 separate locks and over a distance of . The success of the Erie Canal spawned a boom of other canal-building around the country: over of artificial waterways were constructed between 1816 and 1840. Small towns like Syracuse, New York, Buffalo, New York, and Cleveland, Ohio that lay along major canal routes boomed into major industrial and trade centers, while canal-building pushed some states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana to the brink of bankruptcy.
Economy of New York (state)
The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, opened eastern markets to Midwest farm products. The canal also contributed to the growth of New York City, helped create large cities, and encouraged immigration to the state. Except in the mountain regions, the areas between cities are agriculturally rich. The Finger Lakes region has orchards producing apples, which are one of New York's leading crops. The state is known for wines produced at vineyards in the Finger Lakes region and Long Island. The state also produces other crops, especially grapes, strawberries, cherries, pears, onions, and potatoes. New York is a major supplier of maple syrup and is the third leading producer of dairy goods in the United States.
Erie Canal
In 1903 the New York State legislature authorized construction of the New York State Barge Canal as the "Improvement of the Erie, the Oswego, the Champlain, and the Cayuga and Seneca Canals".
In 1905, construction of the Barge Canal began, which was completed in 1918, at a cost of $96.7 million.
Freight traffic reached a total of 5.2 million short tons (4.7 million metric tons) by 1951, before declining in the face of combined rail and truck competition.
Miami and Erie Canal
Consequently, the burden of building canals passed to the states. The Erie Canal in New York proved to be an early success after it was completed in 1825. The Ohio House and Senate had worked for two decades to pass legislation authorizing a canal, gaining success with the Act of February 4, 1825, which finally approved the construction of the Ohio canal system. The canal was largely state-funded, using money acquired from selling off land near where the canals were to be dug. The state government planned and built two canals in the state: the Miami and Erie Canal, from Cincinnati to Toledo, connecting the Ohio River and Lake Erie; and the Ohio and Erie Canal, which connected Cleveland, another lake port, to Portsmouth. This system provided the interior of Ohio with new travel routes that effectively extended to the major Atlantic port of New York City, as merchants could ship goods through Lake Erie, the Erie Canal, and the Hudson River to New York.
Cayuga–Seneca Canal
The Cayuga–Seneca Canal connects the Erie Canal to Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake. It is approximately long.
Packet boat
The American canal packet boats were typically narrow (about 14 feet) to accommodate canals, but might be 70–90 feet long. When the Erie Canal opened in New York state in 1825 along the Mohawk River, demand quickly rose for travelers to be accommodated. Canal packet boats included cabin space for up to 60 passengers. Unlike European and American sailing vessels, that sought to attain greater speed under sail, the canal packet boats were drawn through the Erie Canal by teams of two or three horses or mules. Compared to overland travel, the boats cut journey time in half and were much more comfortable. Travelers could get from New York City to Buffalo in ten days, with a combination of sailing and packet boats. Some passengers took the boats to see both the Erie Canal and the natural landscapes. Significantly, thousands of others used packet boats to emigrate to Ohio and other parts of the Midwest. These boats were also instrumental in the settling of and travel within Upstate New York through the branch canals such as the Chenango Canal.
Packet boats were also popular along the James River and Kanawha Canal in Virginia, allowing travel beyond the falls upriver.
New York State Canal System
In 1903 New York State legislature authorized construction of the "New York State Barge Canal" as the "improvement of the Erie, the Oswego, the Champlain and the Cayuga and Seneca Canals".
In 1905, construction of the Barge Canal began; it was completed in 1918, at a cost of $96.7 million. It opened to through traffic May 15, 1918.
The Barge Canal's new route took advantage of rivers (such as the Mohawk River, Oswego River, Seneca River, Genesee River and Clyde River) that the original Erie Canal builders had avoided, thus bypassing some major cities formerly on the route, such as Syracuse and Rochester. However, particularly in western New York State, the canal system uses the same (enlarged) channel as the original Erie Canal. In 1924 the Barge Canal built the Gowanus Bay Terminal in Brooklyn to handle canal cargo.
Since the 1970s, the state has ceased modernizing the system due to the shift to truck transport. The canal is preserved primarily for historical and recreational purposes. Today, very few commercial vessels use the canal; it is mainly used by private pleasure boats, although it also serves as a method of controlling floods. The last regularly scheduled commercial ship operating on the canal was the "Day Peckinpaugh", which ceased operation in 1994.
Erie Canal
There is no Lock E1 or Lock E31 on the Erie Canal. The place of "Lock E1" on the passage from the lower Hudson River to Lake Erie is taken by the Troy Federal Lock, located just north of Troy, New York, and is not part of the Erie Canal System proper. It is operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Erie Canal officially begins at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers at Waterford, New York.
Erie Canal
The middle section from Utica to Salina (Syracuse) was completed in 1820, and traffic on that section started up immediately. Expansion to the east and west proceeded simultaneously, and the whole eastern section, from Brockport to Albany, opened on September 10, 1823, to great fanfare.
John Randel Jr.
Shortly after his work on the Delaware & Raritan Canal, Randel received on offer to be the engineer for the eastern third of the Erie Canal, from Utica, New York to the Hudson River. Randel turned down this offer, perhaps expecting that he would be given the job of chief engineer on the Delaware & Raritan, but political considerations held up that project, which was not built until 1830-34. In the meantime, Randel relocated to his home in Albany, where, in 1821, a local lawyer asked Randel to cheaply and informally ("without instruments") survey a route for the eastern part of the Erie Canal, which would soon reach nearby Schenectady. Randel completed his survey, devised what he thought was the best route for the canal to take – which included a tunnel, a novelty in the U.S. at the time – delivered the results to the Erie Canal Commission, and published them as well. The Commissioners had not yet made a final decision on the route the canal would take in that area, and they later rebuked Randel for publishing his proposed route while a decision was still pending.
Green Bay, Wisconsin
The Erie Canal was completed in 1825, linking New England with the Great Lakes. This led to the advance of Green Bay as a trading center. The end of the Black Hawk War in 1832 also gave impetus to settlement of the region. Most of the settlers were farmers from New England who began using the Erie Canal to pour into Wisconsin. As more and more New England settlers arrived, Green Bay developed into a trading center for this population.
34th New York State Legislature
On April 8, 1811, the Legislature appointed a new Erie Canal Commission to continue the planning and eventually the construction of the Erie Canal. The previous commissioners Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, William North, Thomas Eddy, State Senator DeWitt Clinton, Surveyor General Simeon DeWitt and Congressman Peter B. Porter were re-appointed; and Ex-Chancellor Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton, who were running a steamboat service between New York City and Albany, were added to the Commission.Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.
Lake Erie
Pleasure boat operators offer dinner cruises in the Cleveland area on the Cuyahoga River as well as Lake Erie.
The lake has been a "bustling thoroughfare" for maritime vessels for centuries. Ships headed eastward can take the Welland Canal and a series of eight locks descending to Lake Ontario which takes about 12 hours, according to one source. Thousands of ships make this journey each year. During the 19th century, ships could enter the Buffalo River and travel the Erie Canal eastward to Albany then south to New York City along the Hudson River. Generally there is heavy traffic on the lake except during the winter months from January through March when ice prevents vessels from traveling safely. In 2007, there was a protest against Ontario's energy policy which allows the shipping of coal in the lake; GreenPeace activists climbed a ladder on a freighter and "locked themselves to the conveyor belt device that helps to unload the ship's cargo"; three activists were arrested and the ship was delayed for more than four hours, and anti-coal messages were painted on the ship.
Erie Canal
The original canal was long, from Albany on the Hudson to Buffalo on Lake Erie. The channel was cut wide and deep, with removed soil piled on the downhill side to form a walkway known as a towpath.
Erie Canal
Distance is based on position markers from an interactive canal map provided online by the New York State Canal Corporation and may not exactly match specifications on signs posted along the canal. Mean surface elevations are comprised from a combination of older canal profiles and history books as well as specifications on signs posted along the canal. The margin of error should normally be within .
Erie Canal Commission
The origins of the Commission can be traced back to two men: Thomas Eddy and Jonas Platt. Eddy was the Treasurer of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, which had been established in 1792 with the purpose of developing a navigable route up the Mohawk River to Lake Ontario. When he found his company in financial trouble, he drew upon the idea first proposed by Joshua Forman (member of the New York State Assembly from Onondaga County in 1808) of building a canal, rather than trying to navigate the rivers. He turned to his friend Platt, then a State Senator and leader of the Federalists in New York, and the two of them decided to propose the creation of a small group of highly influential commissioners to explore two possible routes of a canal – one to Lake Ontario and one to Lake Erie. They would report findings to the New York State Legislature after their expedition to the west. In order to get permission for this commission, Platt and Eddy knew that each man had to command a certain amount of power and respect, but the whole group had to be politically balanced between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. On March 13, 1810, Platt presented his project for a bipartisan Canal Commission to the State Legislature, and received overwhelming support. On March 15, the State Legislature appointed Federalists Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, William North and Thomas Eddy, and Democratic-Republicans DeWitt Clinton, Simeon DeWitt and Peter Buell Porter a commission to explore a route for a canal to Lake Erie, and report.
Boonville (village), New York
In the 1830s to the 1850s the Black River Canal was designed and constructed to connect the Erie Canal(Barge) to the Black River from Rome to Boonville - a distance of 25 miles. This section, connecting Rome and Boonville, is known as the Southern section of the overland canal. It's constructed of 70 locks to lift the boats and water 693 feet. The Northern section of the overland canal connected Boonville and Lyons Falls, 10 miles in distance and requiring 39 locks to descend the boats and water 386 feet. In all, the Black River Canal had 109 locks and is still a world record.
Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site
Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, also known as Erie Canal National Historic Landmark, is a historic district that includes the ruins of the Erie Canal aqueduct over Schoharie Creek, and a long part of the Erie Canal, in the towns of Glen and Florida within Montgomery County, New York. It was the first part of the old canal to be designated a National Historic Landmark, prior to the designation of the entire New York State Barge Canal as a NHL in 2017.
Transportation in New York (state)
By the American Revolutionary War, the colonial Province of New York was still small and relatively sparsely populated. In the 1790 United States Census, the state had a population of 340,120, placing it behind Virginia (747,610), Pennsylvania (434,373), Massachusetts (378,787). The state grew rapidly after this as New York City grew to become the country's shipping epicenter. On October 24, 1825, the Erie Canal opened and over the next century would make boom towns out of the Upstate cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Rome, Utica and Schenectady. Use of the canal would only decline after 1950. Cities in New York State would frequently show up as amongst the largest in the United States during the 19th, and into the early 20th century.
History of the Hudson River
One of the most significant canals of this era was the Erie Canal. For about a hundred years, various groups had sought to have a canal built between the Great Lakes and the Hudson River. This would link the frontier region of the United States to the Port of New York, a significant seaport during that time period as it is today. Construction of the canal began in 1817 and finished in 1825. Originally called "Clinton's Ditch", after NY Governor DeWitt Clinton, the canal proved to be a success, returning revenues of over $121 million after an initial construction cost of only $7 million. After the canal was built, freight could travel from many frontier cities, such as Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Cleveland, to Lake Erie, then to Buffalo and the entrance to the canal, through the canal to the Hudson River, and then south to New York City. The completion of the canal enhanced the development of the American West, allowing settlers to travel west, then send goods back to market in frontier cities, and then eventually export goods via the Hudson River and New York City. The completion of the canal made New York City one of the most vital ports in the nation, surpassing the Port of Philadelphia and ports in Massachusetts.
Chemung Canal
While it was in use, the Chemung Canal enabled coal, lumber, and agricultural products to be shipped from Pennsylvania and the Southern Tier of New York northward, where the Erie Canal could move the goods into the world market. Canal barges were towed the length of Seneca Lake from Watkins Glen to Geneva and the Cayuga and Seneca Canal system, which connected to the Erie Canal.
Transportation in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is historically linked to the fabled Erie Canal, which ended where the Black Rock Channel enters Lake Erie, at Buffalo Creek. When the Erie Canal was dedicated in 1825, its conceiver, New York State governor DeWitt Clinton, carried waters from Lake Erie at Buffalo's western terminus of the canal (now the Commercial Slip), and poured it into the Atlantic Ocean in New York City. He sailed to New York on the canal packet "Seneca Chief." A return trip of the "Seneca Chief" carried Atlantic Ocean seawater. The seawater was poured into the Lake by Judge and future Buffalo Mayor Samuel Wilkeson. Once a major route for passengers and cargo, the Erie Canal played a primary role in opening the American West to settlers from the east. The canal is now used primarily for pleasure craft and some light local freight, and in Buffalo it bypasses the swift upper reach of the Niagara River. A tributary of the Niagara River is Scajaquada Creek, which flows through Buffalo, via the Olmsted-designed Delaware Park–Front Park System.
Erie Canal
Its construction, through limestone and mountains, proved a daunting task. In 1823 construction reached the Niagara Escarpment, necessitating the building of five locks along a corridor to carry the canal over the escarpment. To move earth, animals pulled a "slip scraper" (similar to a bulldozer). The sides of the canal were lined with stone set in clay, and the bottom was also lined with clay. The stonework required hundreds of German masons, who later built many of New York's buildings. All labor on the canal depended upon human (and animal) power or the force of water. Engineering techniques developed during its construction included the building of aqueducts to redirect water; one aqueduct was long to span of river. As the canal progressed, the crews and engineers working on the project developed expertise and became a skilled labor force.
Canal boats up to in draft were pulled by horses and mules walking on the towpath. The canal had one towpath, generally on the north side. When canal boats met, the boat with the right of way remained on the towpath side of the canal. The other boat steered toward the berm (or heelpath) side of the canal. The driver (or "hoggee", pronounced HO-gee) of the privileged boat kept his towpath team by the canalside edge of the towpath, while the hoggee of the other boat moved to the outside of the towpath and stopped his team. His towline would be unhitched from the horses, go slack, fall into the water and sink to the bottom, while his boat coasted with its remaining momentum. The privileged boat's team would step over the other boat's towline, with its horses pulling the boat over the sunken towline without stopping. Once clear, the other boat's team would continue on its way.
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal greatly lowered the cost of shipping between the Midwest and the Northeast, bringing much lower food costs to Eastern cities and allowing the East to economically ship machinery and manufactured goods to the Midwest. The canal also made an immense contribution to the wealth and importance of New York City, Buffalo and New York State. Its impact went much further, increasing trade throughout the nation by opening eastern and overseas markets to Midwestern farm products and by enabling migration to the West.
Fairport, New York
In the early 20th century, the Erie Canal was expanded and renamed the Barge Canal. (It reverted to its original name in 1992). Barge transportation rapidly declined as automobiles and trucks became popular. The town began to expand away from the canal. The Erie Canal is now used mainly for recreation.
Erie Canal
Today, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor covers of navigable water from Lake Champlain to the Capital Region and west to Buffalo. The area has a population of 2.7 million: about 75% of Central and Western New York's population lives within of the Erie Canal.
Long Level
The Long Level was a section on the old Erie Canal, extending from Frankfort, New York westward to Syracuse, New York. The flat topography of this area meant that this section of the canal required no lockage. Initial construction on the Erie Canal was begun on this section at Rome, New York on July 4, 1817.
Erie Canal
There is roughly a natural rise between locks E33 and E34 as well as a natural rise between Lock E35 and the Niagara River.
Alfred Kelley
In 1816, the state of New York asked the state of Ohio's aid in building the Erie Canal. The request was referred to the Ohio House committee on public works, which was chaired by Kelley. He wrote a report endorsing the project, but the Ohio General Assembly did not act on New York's request. Kelley and others came to believe that a canal linking the Ohio River with Lake Erie would greatly benefit Ohio. They frequently communicated with New York Governor DeWitt Clinton and those building the Erie Canal, and circulated glowing reports about construction progress and the ease with which financing was obtained. They also worked to build a coalition strong enough to overcome parochial opposition to an Ohio canal.
John Randel Jr.
Perhaps because of the notoriety which came to him due to the Erie Canal controversy, in 1822 Randel was engaged as a consultant to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The long canal, which would cut across the northern neck of the Delmarva Peninsula, connecting the Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay and cutting 300 miles off the trip between Baltimore and Philadelphia, was proposed as early as 1661. Work on the canal had actually started in 1804, supervised by Benjamin H. Latrobe, but stopped a year later due to lack of funds, politics, topographical and labor problems. In 1822, the re-organized canal company's board of directors engaged William Strickland, an architect and civil engineer, to re-examine the route that had originally been chosen for the canal. Strickland made a slight change, but otherwise deemed the original plan to be sound, however the board of directors was not certain. They asked New York governor DeWitt Clinton to recommend an engineer, and based on this they hired Benjamin Wright to be the canal's chief engineer. They also engaged Randel to review the canal's route, and the previously suggested one which had been passed over.
Chenango Canal
The Chenango Canal was a towpath canal built and operated in the mid-19th century in central New York in the United States. It was 97 miles long and for much of its course followed the Chenango River, along Rt. 12 N-S from Binghamton on the south end to Utica on the north end. It operated from 1834 to 1878 and provided a significant link in the water transportation system of the northeastern U.S., connecting the Susquehanna River to the Erie Canal.
Erie Canal
The canal was first proposed in the 1780s, then re-proposed in 1807. A survey was authorized, funded, and executed in 1808. Proponents of the project gradually wore down opponents; its construction began in 1817. The canal has 34 numbered locks starting with Black Rock Lock and ending downstream with the Troy Federal Lock. Both are owned by the federal government. It has an elevation difference of about . It opened on October 26, 1825.
Miami and Erie Canal
The Miami and Erie Canal was a canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, creating a water route between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Construction on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1845 at a cost to the state government of $8,062,680.07. At its peak, it included 19 aqueducts, three guard locks, 103 canal locks, multiple feeder canals, and a few man-made water reservoirs. The canal climbed above Lake Erie and above the Ohio River to reach a topographical peak called the Loramie Summit, which extended between New Bremen, Ohio to lock 1-S in Lockington, north of Piqua, Ohio. Boats up to 80 feet long were towed along the canal by mules, horses, or oxen walking on a prepared towpath along the bank, at a rate of four to five miles per hour.
Beaver and Erie Canal
The Beaver and Erie Canal, also known as the Erie Extension Canal, was part of the Pennsylvania Canal system and consisted of three sections: the Beaver Division, the Shenango Division, and the Conneaut Division. The canal ran north–south near the western edge of the state from the Ohio River to Lake Erie through Beaver County, Lawrence County, Mercer County, Crawford County, and Erie County, Pennsylvania.
Patowmack Canal
The Erie Canal opened in 1825, and immediately became a rival, controlling a connection between the Great Lakes and the Eastern Seaboard. The Patowmack Company folded in 1828, turning over its assets and liabilities to the newly formed C&O Canal Company. The new company abandoned the Patowmack Canal (except for the section at Little Falls) in 1830 for an even more ambitious undertaking: a man-made waterway stretching from Georgetown to Pittsburgh. Although the Patowmack Company was a financial failure, its builders pioneered lock engineering and stimulated a wave of canal construction important to the country's development.
Warren County Canal
The Warren County Canal was made completely navigable in 1840, it having reached Lock 2 near Lebanon on March 15, 1839. The canal, wide plus a towpath, began at Middletown between Miami and Erie Lock 31 (Dine's) and 32 (Middletown) at Mile 208. (Mile 0 was on Lake Erie at Toledo, Mile 250 was on the Ohio River at Cincinnati.) This site is about south of the present Central Avenue; Verity Parkway follows the old path of the Miami and Erie (). The canal was supplied by a feeder off the Miami and Erie Canal north at Mile 205 between Lock 29 (Upper Greenland) and Lock 30 (Lower Greenland), south of the Miami Dam. The canal there consumed water at the rate of 1800 cubic feet per minute (850 L/s) (per Morrow's "History") or 2000 cubic feet per minute (940 L/s) (per the "Historical and Biographical Cyclopaedia").
Oswego Canal
The Oswego Canal is a canal in the New York State Canal System located in New York, United States. Opened in 1828, it is 23.7 miles (38.1 km) in length, and connects the Erie Canal at Three Rivers (near Liverpool) to Lake Ontario at Oswego. The canal has a depth of 14 ft (4.2 m), with seven locks spanning the 118 ft (36 m) change in elevation.
Beaver and Erie Canal
The southern terminus of the canal was the confluence of the Beaver River with the Ohio River in Beaver County about downstream from Pittsburgh, and the northern terminus was the city of Erie, in Erie County. The canal needed a total of 137 locks to overcome a change in elevation of .
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal was thus completed in eight years at a cost of $7,143,000 (). It was acclaimed as an engineering marvel that united the country and helped New York City become a financial capital.
Broad Street Bridge (Rochester, New York)
Erie Canal: Second Genesee Aqueduct, also known as the Broad Street Aqueduct or Broad Street Bridge, is a historic stone aqueduct located at Rochester in Monroe County, New York. It was constructed in 1836–1842 and originally carried the Erie Canal over the Genesee River. The overall length of the aqueduct including the wings and abutments is . The aqueduct is wide and has massive parapets on either side. It is one of four major aqueducts in the mid-19th century Erie Canal system. In 1927, a roadbed was added to carry automobile traffic and named Broad Street. It also carried a part of the Rochester Subway.
Canal
In the United States, navigable canals reached into isolated areas and brought them in touch with the world beyond. By 1825 the Erie Canal, long with 36 locks, opened up a connection from the populated Northeast to the Great Lakes. Settlers flooded into regions serviced by such canals, since access to markets was available. The Erie Canal (as well as other canals) was instrumental in lowering the differences in commodity prices between these various markets across America. The canals caused price convergence between different regions because of their reduction in transportation costs, which allowed Americans to ship and buy goods from farther distances much cheaper. Ohio built many miles of canal, Indiana had working canals for a few decades, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River system until replaced by a channelized river waterway.
Three major canals with very different purposes were built in what is now Canada. The first Welland Canal, which opened in 1829 between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, bypassing Niagara Falls and the Lachine Canal (1825), which allowed ships to skirt the nearly impassable rapids on the St. Lawrence River at Montreal, were built for commerce. The Rideau Canal, completed in 1832, connects Ottawa on the Ottawa River to Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario. The Rideau Canal was built as a result of the War of 1812 to provide military transportation between the British colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada as an alternative to part of the St. Lawrence River, which was susceptible to blockade by the United States.
In France, a steady linking of all the river systems – Rhine, Rhône, Saône and Seine – and the North Sea was boosted in 1879 by the establishment of the Freycinet gauge, which specified the minimum size of locks. Canal traffic doubled in the first decades of the 20th century.
Ohio and Erie Canal
During 1832, the Ohio and Erie Canal was completed. The entire canal system was long with 146 lift locks and a rise of . In addition, there were five feeder canals that added and 6 additional locks to the system consisting of:
Limestone Creek (Onondaga County)
The Limestone Creek Aqueduct, completed in 1856, carries the Enlarged Erie Canal across Limestone Creek. It is a three-span stone structure long, supporting a concrete aqueduct and the old towpath (now the Erie Canalway Trail).
Black Rock Lock
The Black Rock Lock located in Buffalo, New York is in length and wide. There is only one chamber and the total weight of the gate is 480 tons. The lock has been a part of Black Rock since the state of New York built the Erie Canal in 1833.
Lake Erie Connector
The Lake Erie Connector is conduit, under Lake Erie, connecting Ontario's electrical power grid with Pennsylvania's electrical power grid. The conduit will be long, going from Nanticoke, Ontario to Erie County, Pennsylvania. It is designed to carry up to 1,000 Megawatts.
Erie Canal
The successes of the Canal du Midi in France (1681), Bridgewater Canal in Britain (1769), and Eider Canal in Denmark (1784) spurred on what was called in Britain "canal mania". The idea of a canal to tie the East Coast to the new western settlements was discussed as early as 1724: New York provincial official Cadwallader Colden made a passing reference (in a report on fur trading) to improving the natural waterways of western New York.
Erie Canal
The new alignment began on the Hudson River at the border between Cohoes and Waterford, where it ran northwest with five locks (the so-called "Waterford Flight"), running into the Mohawk River east of Crescent. The Waterford Flight is claimed to be one of the steepest series of locks in the world.
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is open to small craft and some larger vessels from May through November each year. During winter, water is drained from parts of the canal for maintenance. 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. In 2006 recreational boating fees were eliminated to attract more visitors.
Wood Creek
In 1817 New York State chartered the Erie Canal, which would solve the myriad problems of the Albany-Oswego waterway by building a system of unprecedented size and sophistication. In 1820 the works of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company were purchased for the use of the Erie Canal, which bypassed the Wood Creek to Oswego portion of the old waterway in favor of a direct canal from Rome through Syracuse and Rochester to Buffalo, on Lake Erie. The Rome Canal and the waterway running west along Wood Creek to Oneida Lake were abandoned. The century when tiny Wood Creek was a channel for much of the cargo between the inlands of North America and the Atlantic seaboard had ended.
Erie Canal
Oneida Lake lies between locks E22 and E23, and has a mean surface elevation of . Lake Erie has a mean surface elevation of .
Erie Canal Commission
The Commission to Explore a Route for a Canal to Lake Erie and Report, known as the Erie Canal Commission, was a body created by the New York State Legislature in 1810 to plan the Erie Canal. In 1817 a "Canal Fund" led by "Commissioners of the Canal Fund" was established to oversee the funding of construction of the canal. In 1826 a "Canal Board", of which both the planning commissioners and the Canal Fund commissioners were members, was created to take control of the operational canal. The term "Canal Commission" was at times applied to any of these bodies. Afterwards the canal commissioners were minor state cabinet officers responsible for the maintenance and improvements of the state's canals.
Chittenango, New York
Initial growth of this village is largely attributed to the construction of the Erie Canal which officially opened in 1825, joining Buffalo on Lake Erie with Albany, the capital of New York, and the Hudson River. The Erie Canal passes just north of the village. The Chittenango Canal Company, incorporated in 1818, constructed a canal in length connecting Chittenango to the Erie Canal. The village became a virtual canal town upon the construction of the Chittenango Canal Boat Landing, which featured a three-bay dry dock where canal boats were built and repaired. The canal brought prosperity, growth and expansion to the village. It created a need for inns, hotels and restaurants, and area farms and factories found the canal useful as an inexpensive and easy way to ship goods further along the canal or beyond. Because the canal connected to the Hudson River, boats were able to ship goods south to the metropolis of Manhattan.
Enlarged Erie Canal Historic District (Discontiguous)
Enlarged Erie Canal Historic District (Discontiguous) is a national historic district located at Cohoes in Albany County, New York. It includes two contributing buildings and 10 contributing structures. It encompasses resources associated with the Enlarged Erie Canal, 1835-1862, Locks 9 through 18, and located within the City of Cohoes. The district includes five numbered units with each unit representing a cohesive grouping of resources highlighted by one or more extant canal locks. Each unit consists of at least one remaining lock and the associated elements including sections of towpath, berm walls, engineering features, and canal prism.
Erie Canal
The original design planned for an annual tonnage of 1.5 million tons (1.36 million metric tons), but this was exceeded immediately. An ambitious program to improve the canal began in 1834. During this massive series of construction projects, known as the First Enlargement, the canal was widened from and deepened from . Locks were widened and/or rebuilt in new locations, and many new navigable aqueducts were constructed. The canal was straightened and slightly re-routed in some stretches, resulting in the abandonment of short segments of the original 1825 canal. The First Enlargement was completed in 1862, with further minor enlargements in later decades.
Indiana Central Canal
The Indiana Central Canal was a canal intended to connect the Wabash and Erie Canal to the Ohio River. It was funded by the Mammoth Internal Improvement Act, Indiana's attempt to take part in the canal-building craze, started by the Erie Canal. $3.5 million was allocated for the project, the largest piece of the entire $10 million Act. However, due to the Panic of 1837, Indiana suffered financial difficulties and had to turn over the canal to the state's creditors, and building of the canal was stopped in 1839. The canal was supposed to extend , from Peru, Indiana, to Evansville, Indiana, where it would reach the Ohio River. It was originally divided into two sections, North and South. Later, a third section was designated, called the Indianapolis section. Only eight miles were completed, with eighty additional miles between Anderson, Indiana, and Martinsville, Indiana, having been partially built.
Ohio and Erie Canal
On December 11, 1816, Clinton, by then the Governor of New York, sent a letter to the Ohio Legislature indicating his state's willingness to construct the Erie Canal without national help, and asking the State of Ohio to join the endeavor. On January 9, 1817, the Ohio Legislature directed Ohio's Governor (and former Senator) Thomas Worthington to negotiate a deal with Clinton. Due to the cost, however, the Ohio Legislature dallied, and nothing happened for three years. Finally, in January 1822, the Ohio Legislature passed acts to fund the canal system (and the state's public education obligations).
Florida, Montgomery County, New York
The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 eased transportation through the Mohawk Valley, connecting it to both the Great Lakes and the Hudson River and New York City markets. This greatly increased economic development in villages and cities along the canal.