A little history of the Erie Canal/New York Canal System

A little history lesson

Upon reaching the town of Waterford New York 18 miles upriver we will leave the Hudson River and enter the Erie Canal. I thought I would share a little history about it for you.

The Appalachian Mountain Range posed a formidable barrier between the states bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the vast, mostly uninhabited Northwest Territories. Before the canal was built it took 15-45 days to travel from Albany New York to Buffalo with a cost of $125 per ton of cargo. After the canal was built it took about 9 days for a cost of $6.00 per ton! Realizing the need and importance of building a canal for growth and commerce the challenge began.

    The biggest proponent of the building of a canal was Dewitt Clinton, visionary and astute politician. He was a U.S. senator and ten time mayor of New York City. He believed that NYC would become a major economic force by building the canal and open up the center of the country to commerce. After much campaigning canal construction began on July 4th 1817. The first canal was dug almost entirely by hand. It was 40' wide and 4' deep.  It ran 363 miles and had 83 locks.
Naysayers for the building of the canal called it Clinton's ditch. It really was not much more than than that. The vessels were pulled by horse or mule and those paths have now become paths for walkers, runners and bikers.
The locks raised vessels a total of 565' between these two cities, an amazing engineering feat for its opening in October of 1825. The $7,000,000 cost was completely paid off from tolls collected in the canals first nine years of operation. Tolls were charged or 57 years raising $42,000,000 which payed for expansions, maintenance and operational fees. Settlers flocked westward building villages, sawmills and industries as they went.  The prosperity spread along the line of the Erie Canal as far as the Great Lakes.  New York City became the largest American seaport.
By 1862 canal improvements had continued and it was now 7 feet deep to handle larger barge traffic.
By the 1980s railroads had taken away all of the canals passenger business and most of its cargo business so a new larger canal was planned.  In 1915 the state of New York started a major overhaul of the canal system, increasing its with to about 150 feet and depth to 12 foot. The new canal follows the natural rivers and lakes to a much greater degree than the original and was renamed the New York Barge canal system.
With the growing competition from railroads and highways and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 commercial traffic on the Canal System declined and today it is referred to as a "Yacht Highway" but renamed again as the New York State Canal system it is showing a rebirth as a recreational and historic resource.
The major  canals in the NYC system include the Erie, Oswego, Champlain, and Cayuga-Seneca.
We will travel a portion of the Erie to three rivers and the entire Oswego to Lake Ontario.