It’s almost 200 years since the opening of the Erie Canal, a feat of engineering never before seen in North America that stretched 363 miles across upstate New York from Buffalo in the west to Albany in the east. By expediting the transport of goods, the canal transformed New York City, turning it into a major trading center and America’s main seaport. As well as supporting the commercial transportation of grain, coal and lumber, canals throughout the US improved the quality of the surrounding land, encouraged migration, and even enabled the spread of ideas. While the man-made canals followed rivers, incorporated lakes and connected seaports, the network of inland waterways also induced railroad construction, with trains supplementing the transportations capabilities of the canals before replacing them along most routes. This was not before the construction of 3,000 miles of engineered channels during the Canal Era had a significant impact on the development of America by fueling industrial growth and expansion westwards.
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My wife's kin worked on the canal. Irish.
ReplyDeleteVery good article.
ReplyDeleteThere is part of the old Erie Canal in Western PA that my buddie and I would fish by canoe. That place was loaded with Noerthern Pike and Largemouth Bass. I caught the biggest bass of my life there back in the '90s. The great thing was that you would never encounter another soul there except during waterfowl season......
ReplyDeleteI had a great uncle, Olney was his name, that was a lock tender on the Black River Canal that ran northward up past Booneville, NY. Someone on the boat would blow a horn letting him know they were almost their and he would come out of his house to open the lock. Evidently, the amount of locks built on the Black River canal is a record that still stands today.
ReplyDeleteFrench Louie, one of the last of the Adirondack Hermits would sometime drive mule on the Canal. At night when approaching a lock he would howl like a panther and scare the liven daylights out of the tenders.
DeleteBTW, blackrivercanalmuseum.com is a great source for the history of that canal.
ReplyDeleteI live three miles from the Canal between Spencerport and Brockport (a lot of 'port' towns along it's length) Not much traffic any more, but good fishing and a huge source of irrigation for farmers along it's path. An amazing undertaking for it's time, surprisingly Malaria was a huge bother during it's construction (known as Genesee Fever) along with snakes.
ReplyDeleteYep, we have swamps up here!
I remember learning about things like the Welland Canal and a few others way back in elementary school. I never realized that there were so many canals as this.
ReplyDeleteSadly I doubt that the school systems even cover things like this, that were so important to the development of our nation. While Trump being elected was a positive against the other option, there is no miracle that he can perform to move us back to where we as a nation belong. That will be sitting directly upon our shoulders.
Lots of remnants of the Ohio and Erie Canal in Ohio. Buckeye Lake east of Columbus was built to supply water to operate the locks
ReplyDeleteI got a mule and her name is Sal
ReplyDeleteFifteen miles on the Erie canal.
I still remember the stories from elementary school about the canals.