erie canal 1800s

Adjunct instructor of history, Waynesburg University, Pennsylvania. The Erie Canal's success was part of a Canal-building boom in New York in the 1820s. A dip in a city street is one of the last reminders of a canal that cut a path through Erie's downtown for several decades in the mid-1800s. The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, which found itself short of funds and snarled in state partisan politics, never completed its plans. All of these were taken in Waterford at Lock 2, the entrance to the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal Story In the early 1800’s, Upstate New York was a wilderness. The canal was enlarged in the mid-1800s, and it continued to be used for freight transportation for decades. Each contractor was then responsible for supplying equipment and for hiring, supervising, and paying his own workers. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton pouring water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean to mark the completion of the Erie Canal. The idea of building a canal from the east coast to the interior of North America was proposed by George Washington, who actually attempted such a thing in the 1790s. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, From commercial artery to national symbol, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Erie-Canal, Ohio History Central - Miami and Erie Canal, Erie Canal - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Erie Canal - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). A massive fleet of boats assembled in New York harbor, and as the city celebrated, Clinton took a cask of water from Lake Erie and poured it into the Atlantic Ocean. McNamara, Robert. One of the problems with the old wooden canal boats was their limited life span. 4 Routes to the West Used by American Settlers, National Parks in Ohio: Wright Brothers, Mounds, Buffalo Soldiers, Election of 1812: DeWitt Clinton Nearly Unseated James Madison, Albert Gallatin's Report on Roads, Canals, Harbors, and Rivers, Founding and History of the New York Colony, The Wall Street War to Control the Erie Railroad, Biography of Robert Fulton, Inventor of the Steamboat, The Most Important Inventions of the Industrial Revolution, 363 miles in length, from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie. To mark the occasion, DeWitt Clinton, who was still governor of New York, rode a canal boat from Buffalo, New York, in western New York, to Albany. At the conclusion of the trip in New York City, Clinton emptied a keg of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean, calling it the “marriage of the waters.” Altogether, the locks, the aqueducts, and the canal itself were considered an American engineering marvel, and it was a great source of pride as an example of how citizens in a republic could improve upon nature and promote progress. 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. This grand idea might never have come to fruition but for the efforts of a remarkable character, DeWitt Clinton. The canal's success was responsible for New York's new nickname: "The Empire State.". Project the map The Erie Canal of New York and explain that engineers built the Erie Canal to create a water route for boats between Lake Erie and the Mohawk River. Its success propelled New York City into a major commercial centre and encouraged canal construction throughout the United States. The canal did not incorporate any natural lakes or rivers into its design, so it is entirely contained. Independent historian. The Erie Canal Is Completed. The public debt for canals in 1825 amounted to seven and a half million dollars—all of which, it must be recorded to the honor of the State and the country, had been borrowed of American capitalists—and the annual interest thereon, to three hundred seventy-six thousand dollars. Building the Erie Canal. Back then, the latest development in transportation was the Erie Canal. Clinton's boat then proceeded down the Hudson to New York City. The idea for a canal connecting the Hudson River and the Great Lakes was first proposed in the early 1800s by a miller living in a village in upstate New York. View of Buffalo, on the shore of Lake Erie, before completion of the Erie Canal in 1825. (2020, August 27). DeWitt Clinton had just been elected governor of New York, and his determination to build the canal became legendary. For Ohioans in the early 1800s that solution seemed to be an expensive, somewhat slow moving canal system that could connect with the two major bodies of water around Ohio: Lake Erie that connected farmers with the east coast, and the Ohio River that connected to the Gulf of Mexico. History of the Erie Canal This history of the Erie Canal, prepared by the University of Rochester, offers a map of the canal system in 1868, a chart showing the "evolution" of boats, and a timeline. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. It also had connections to other canal systems in Pennsylvania. There were many people who thought the canal was a foolish idea, and it was derided as "Clinton's Big Ditch" or "Clinton's Folly.". Lake Erie is 571 feet higher than the level of the Hudson River; locks were built to overcome that difference. Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation. Clinton, who had been involved in national politics, he had nearly beaten James Madison in the 1812 presidential election, was an energetic mayor of New York City. https://www.thoughtco.com/building-the-erie-canal-1773705 (accessed January 24, 2021). During the late 1700s and the early 1800s, many Americans called for a canal that would traverse the Appalachian Mountains. The Erie Canal also did not cost the taxpayers of New York a penny since it was financed by bonds, all of which totaled to $8.4 million. The locks were designed so that each needed only one person for its operation. You may want to think of yourself as an ancestor of your family during the 1800s. Steam machinery was not yet available, so workers used techniques that had been used for hundreds of years. -- 1870-1900? Originally. You can change your answer if you want. The canal was finished on October 26, 1825, two years ahead of schedule. All of upstate New York and the upper Ohio River valley were now connected to New York. In the 1780s, Washington organized a company, the Patowmack Canal Company, that sought to build a canal following the Potomac River. The canal cost about $7 million, but collecting tolls meant it paid for itself within a decade. This is “a falsehood made up to explain a falsehood,” says Dan Ward, former curator at The Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse NY. The plans for building the canal were delayed by the War of 1812. Diggin’ the Erie Canal. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In the late 1700s, the new American nation was faced with a problem. The website might not look like much, but click on "Bibliograhy" to find histories of U.S. canals written in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Canal engineer Nathan B. Roberts designed a series of 10 locks, five levels with 2 locks side-by-side, to carry boats over this barrier. As a result of the success of the canal, all of New York wanted more canals built in a similar manner. However I hope we can advance them with equal pace."1. The original 13 states were arranged along the Atlantic coast, and there was a fear that other nations, such as Britain or France, would be able to claim much of the interior of North America. Read the excerpt from William Seward’s The Building of the Erie Canal. In 1817 the Erie Canal was established under the management of a New York State Commission. In 1792 the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was incorporated by the state of New York and given the rights to improve navigation on rivers and lakes west of Albany. The Erie Canal was a huge and immediate success as a transportation artery. Interesting Facts about the Erie Canal In this lesson, we're going to look at the major changes brought about by the construction of the Erie Canal. Under the leadership of Philip Schuyler, the company focused most of its activity on the Mohawk River, clearing the riverbed and digging several short canals to bypass river rapids. The construction of the canal went from 1817 to 1825 and the purpose of it was to connect Lake Erie to the Hudson River.Even though the canal was open in 1825, additions and extensions were added to it for many years after. Updates? Jefferson turned down the idea but determined New Yorkers decided they would proceed on their own. Between 1835 and the turn of the century, this network of Canals was enlarged twice to … "[P]eople generally have more feeling for canals & roads than education. Having a local source of hydraulic cement greatly aided the construction process, and it reduced costs by eliminating the need to import European cement. For webquest or practice, print a copy of this quiz at the Erie Canal webquest print page. On the western side, the challenge was the Niagara Escarpment, a 23-metre (75-foot) rock ridge. Meanwhile, a new canal project had been gaining momentum. Immigrants leaped from halted canal boats and passed through locks on foot, despite the efforts by contingents of armed militia to stop them. But things were very different in the early 1800s. It has been enlarged several times to accommodate larger boats and became part of the New York State Canal System in 1918. TIMED PLEASE HURRY. Beginning in the 1780s, various plans were proposed to improve navigation on the Mohawk River. Primary Source References. The Erie Canal soon began to change everything in America. The Erie Canal’s success inaugurated a period of intensive canal construction. On October 25, 1825, the entire length of the Erie Canal was complete. The canal was 363 miles (584 kilometers) long, … Today the canal is generally used as a recreational waterway, and the State of New York is actively engaged in promoting the Erie Canal as a tourist destination. Clinton promoted the idea of a great canal in New York State and became the driving force in having it constructed. In 1830, the Ohio legislature earmarked funds for the Miami and Erie Canal's extension to Defiance and Lake Erie. Canal engineer Canvass White solved one of the construction obstacles when he discovered how to create a cement that hardened underwater. Each year the Erie Canal Museum transforms into a festive 1800s canal town street scene with gingerbread creations on display in storefront windows. The canal also required the construction of 18 aqueducts to carry the canal over bodies of water. New York was never to be the same, and many of the famous cities of upstate New York exist for the simple reason they were begun along the route of the Canal. With a typical canal prism shape—12 metres (40 feet) wide on the top, 8.5 metres (28 feet) wide at the bottom, and 1.2 metres (4 feet) deep—the engineers patterned the Erie Canal after the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts. ThoughtCo. The canal was built in sections, so portions of it were opened for traffic before the entire length was declared finished on October 26, 1825. The time to ship goods from Buffalo to New York was shortened from twenty days to six; and the cost per ton reduced from $1… Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 1807 December 10. Travel also proceeded westward for goods and products as well as passengers. The Erie required 83 locks, each made of stone, to move boats up and down the natural elevations. The Erie Canal in New York is part of the east–west, cross-state route of the New York State Canal System (formerly known as the New York State Barge Canal). It was the superhighway of its day and made vast amounts of commerce possible. For example, during summer construction in a marsh, 1,000 workers died of swamp fever, so survivors were moved to another part of the canal until winter when it was safer to work in the frozen marsh. Eventually, railroads and highways superseded the canal. Taking advantage of the Mohawk River gap in the Appalachian Mountains, the Erie Canal, 363 miles (584 km) long, was the first canal in the United States to connect western waterways with the Atlantic Ocean. In 1817, following election as governor of New York, Clinton persuaded the state legislature to authorize loans for $7 million to build a canal from Buffalo, on the eastern shore of Lake Erie, to the upper Hudson, passing through the Mohawk Valley region. Tell students that in addition to using existing rivers, people in the 1800s could also create canals, or manmade rivers. The laborers were mostly newly arrived immigrants from Ireland, and most of the work would be done with picks and shovels. McNamara, Robert. As more Irish laborers arrived the pace of construction picked up and overcame significant barriers. The circle next to the answer will turn yellow. The staircaselike locks were followed by a 5-km- (3-mile-) long, 9-metre- (30-foot-) deep cut blasted into the rocky plateau. Although the company achieved some success in making improvements to the river, it never had the financial resources to tackle the larger navigation obstacles in the river. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/building-the-erie-canal-1773705. Construction began in 1817 and was completed in 1825. According to the State of New York, 80 percent of the population of upstate New York still lives within 25 miles of the route of the Erie Canal. The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. Images of the Erie Canal in the Niskayuna/Vischer Ferry area Eventually, railroads and highways superseded the canal. The Erie Canal at Schenectady . The Erie Canal Today By the late-1800s canals were overtaken by railroads as the most important form of transportation. Erie Canal, historic waterway of the United States, connecting the Great Lakes with New York City via the Hudson River at Albany. Many Americans who wanted to settle on the frontier used the canal as a highway westward. The Erie Canal was the marvel of the age, and it was celebrated in songs, illustrations, paintings, and popular folklore. Old Lithographs, Paintings, Woodcuts, Etc. The historic project that was the famous Erie Canal--all of four feet deep--was begun in 1817. "Building the Erie Canal." Fifteen miles was the common distance a mule or horse would work before resting. ... It’s named after the man who was extremely important to the building of Buffalo in the early 1800s, so I’m including it. … The town that grew at this site was appropriately named Lockport. Between 1823 and 1828, several lateral Canals opened including the Champlain, the Oswego and the Cayuga-Seneca. Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The Erie Canal checked that trend as the new s… The canal was enlarged in the mid-1800s, and it continued to be used for freight transportation for decades. About this quiz: All the questions on this quiz are based on information that can be found on the page at Erie Canal. The Erie Canal was the marvel of the age, and it was celebrated in songs, illustrations, paintings, and popular folklore. The canal consisted of 85 locks to manage a 500 foot (150 meter) rise in elevation from the Hudson River to Buffalo. Take this quiz. Test your knowledge. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/building-the-erie-canal-1773705. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Construction began in 1817 and was completed in 1825. It originally ran 363 miles (584 km) from the Hudson River in Albany to Lake Erie in Buffalo. On the eastern section, the lower Mohawk Valley required the construction of 27 locks over only 50 km (30 miles) in order to surmount a series of natural rapids, including those found in Cohoes and Little Falls. This canal—a waterway made for travel—changed the future of the United States of America. McNamara, Robert. The Erie Canal provided the first waterway connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The Erie Canal opened today (5/15/2018), marking the 194th canal season since its auspicious opening in 1825 in New York. A canal linking the Ohio River with Cleveland on Lake Erie was completed in 1833, and a waterway between the Chicago and Illinois rivers was built between 1836 and 1848. Animals typically worked in six hour shifts, which could mean anywhere from 3-20+ miles depending on several factors including the number of locks they encountered and the volume of traffic. Corrections? But construction finally began on July 4, 1817. Discuss the Erie Canal and how it solved problems caused by the landscape. Goods from the west could be taken across the Great Lakes to Buffalo, then on the canal to Albany and New York City, and conceivably even to Europe. However, the Erie Canal is still used today by recreational watercraft. Nonetheless, the Mohawk River still provided a valuable path from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, and plans for a new canal were debated. (Federal funds were sought, but were not legislated, so this canal and all subsequent canals in New York State were built and maintained exclusively with state funds.) It was a dream, and many people scoffed, but when one man, DeWitt Clinton, became involved, the crazy dream started to become reality. He won preliminary legislative approval in 1816 and was named commissioner for the project. Erie Canal, historic waterway of the United States, connecting the Great Lakes with New York City via the Hudson River at Albany. The Erie Canal was America's most successful canal. In particular, DeWitt Clinton had promoted the idea of a western canal as early as 1811 while serving in the New York state senate. When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it was the marvel of its age. The Erie Canal for kids: Background History The Residents of New York first started to discuss the possibility of building a canal that linked the Atlantic coast and New York to the Great Lakes in the late 1700's. During the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, prominent citizens of New York State pushed to have the federal government finance a canal that would proceed westward from the Hudson River. Dewitt Clinton saw the need for a faster, cheaper way to carry goods and people. Swamps and dense forests covered the land. And many towns and cities sprang up along the canal, including Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. There was a big line up of vessels in Waterford, waiting to lock through and head west. Postcards of the Erie Canal in Schenectady and Vicinity ; The Mohawk River Aqueducts ; The Rexford Aqueduct ; The Crescent Aqueduct ; Images of the Erie Canal between Schenectady and Albany . The statistics of the Erie Canal were impressive: Boats on the canal were pulled by horses on a towpath, though steam-powered boats eventually became standard. 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