# Historic Highways of America/Volume 14/Chapter 4

CHAPTER IV
PLANNING, BUILDING, AND OPENING
BY an act of the New York legislature of April 17, 1816, the canal commissioners were ordered to send to the legislature "a plain and comprehensive Report of their proceedings;" their duty was to find a route for the projected canal, estimate the expense, ascertain on what terms the state of New York could secure loans, and to apply for donations of both land and money.
The committee met at New York May 17, 1816, and organized. The proposed line of the canal was divided into three sections and an engineer was appointed for each. ​The Western Section embraced the portion of the route between Lake Erie and the Seneca River; the Middle Section was that between the Seneca River and Rome on the Mohawk; the Eastern Section extended from Rome to Albany on the Hudson. The only point at which there was serious question as to the best route of the canal was between Lake Erie and the Genesee country; and the question was whether to pass south or north of the "mountain ridge" which lay south of the shore of Lake Ontario. Four engineers were sent to make an examination. Two commissioners and engineers were sent to inspect the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts, "the best artificial navigation in the United States."
The commissioners met again July 15, after which three of them went to inspect the important portions of a canal route which was now being marked out by the corps of surveyors from Lake Erie to the Mohawk. The size of the canal proposed was forty feet wide on water surface, twenty-eight feet wide at the base and four feet deep—capable of handling boats ​of one hundred tons. The locks were to be ninety feet long, twelve feet in width in the clear. These would accommodate any lumber that was then being shipped from the regions tapped by the canal. The route of the canal survey was being marked by "bench marks, level pegs, and other fixtures; . . Shafts have been sunk into the earth in various places, to ascertain its nature, with a view to a just estimation of the labour required, and of the expense to be incurred." The point of junction with Lake Erie, forever a doubtful point until the very last, was now planned at the mouth of Buffalo Creek; the water was higher there, of course, than at any point in the Niagara River, "and every inch gained in elevation will produce a large saving in the expense of excavation throughout the Lake Erie level."
Map and Profile of the Erie Canal
[From Poussin's "Travaux d'améliorations intérieures . . des États-Unis d'Amérique de 1824 à 1831" (Paris, 1834)]
​Great Tonawanda Swamp, was $450,000, and for the total distance to the Genesee River, $780,000. The absence of water on this route made reservoirs necessary, which formed a strong objection to pursuing that course. Anticipating this, Engineer James Geddes was sent over another course from a point twelve miles up the Tonawanda to the Seneca River. The distance was one hundred and thirty-six miles; the rise of one hundred and ninety-four feet from Seneca River to Lake Erie was to be overcome by twenty-five locks; the total expense was put at $1,550,985. The Middle Section extended from Seneca River to Rome, with a decline of forty-eight and one-half feet in seventy-seven miles. It was surveyed and laid out by Benjamin Wright; the estimate included $1,500 per mile for grubbing, so heavy were the forests, and reached a total of $853,186, which was considered liberal. The Eastern Section from Rome to Albany was surveyed in part by Engineer Charles C. Broadhead. The seventy odd miles to Schoharie Creek, with a descent of 132.85 feet, called for sixteen locks and forty-five ​bridges—a total expenditure of $1,090,603. The forty-two miles to Albany were not now surveyed; the estimate for this distance was $1,106,087. The total descent of the canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson was 564.85 feet and its length was about 363 miles. The average estimated cost per mile was $13,800—by the route north of the Genesee River.
The Erie Canal was born in the Act of April 15, 1817. After being passed by the legislature it went before the Council of Revision. "The ordeal this bill met with in the Council of Revision, came near being fatal to it; it could not have received a two-thirds vote after a veto. The Council was composed of Lieutenant-Governor John Tayler, acting Governor, as President of the Council, Chief Justice Thompson, Chancellor Kent, and Judges Yates and Platt. Acting Governor Tayler was openly opposed to the whole scheme. The Chief Justice was also opposed to this bill. Chancellor Kent was in favor of the canal, but feared it was too early for the State to undertake this gigantic work. Judges ​Yates and Platt were in favor of the bill; but it was likely to be lost by the casting vote of the acting Governor. Vice President Tompkins (recently the Governor) entered the room at this stage of the proceedings, and, in an informal way, joined in conversation upon the subject before the Council, and in opposition to this bill. He said 'The late peace with Great Britain was a mere truce, and we will undoubtedly soon have a renewed war with that country; and instead of wasting the credit and resources of the State in this chimerical project, we ought to employ all our revenue and credit in preparing for war.'
"'Do you think so, sir?' said Chancellor Kent.
"'Yes, sir,' replied the Vice President; 'England will never forgive us for our victories, and, my word for it, we shall have another war, with her within two years.'
"The Chancellor, then rising from his seat, with great animation declared,
"'If we must have war . . . I am in favor of the canal and I vote for the bill.'
​"With that vote the bill became a law."
Preliminary work was immediately begun in the early spring of 1817 at the strategic summit level at Rome by conducting "a careful re-examination of the line of the canal, and of the levels of the preceding year." This reconsideration seemed to indicate that a longer summit level at Rome than the one selected should be made, and Utica was chosen as the eastern extremity of this level rather than Rome. This decision was enforced by the fact that Mohawk navigation above Utica was always more uncertain than at any point below it; if the canal for instance should terminate at the Mohawk because of lack of means, or other cause, it would be advantageous to have its terminus on the Mohawk at a point where navigation was as uniformly reliable as possible. The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company had often found it necessary to make a portage from Utica to Rome, such was the low stage of water in the Mohawk. The summit level chosen, ​therefore, ran from Utica to the salt-works at Salina (Syracuse). This was the eastern summit. The western was yet to be chosen between the Genesee and the Niagara tributaries in western New York.
Five lines of stakes were now driven into the ground from the eastern to the western boundaries of the state of New York—a circumstance which must be considered epoch-making in the history of America. For, look at it as you will, the beginning of the Erie Canal must be considered a greater marvel than the building of it. It would be difficult now to propose an engineering feat that is within the range of sanity that would provoke so much ridicule and debate as did the plan to build the Erie Canal through those hundreds of miles of dense forests and reeking swamps in 1816. A bridge across the Atlantic or a tunnel underneath it could scarcely provoke more sneers today. Yet the summer of 1817 saw the rows of stakes driven into the ground—over hill and vale, through densest forest and sickliest swamp, from east to west; the outer rows were sixty feet apart and indicated the space to be ​grubbed; between these were two other rows forty feet apart which indicated the exact dimensions of the canal; a single row of stakes in the middle marked the exact center of the canal. Those who laughed at the stakes grew sober when men came on over the route boring with four inch augers into the ground every few rods to a depth of twelve feet; by this means the nature of the soil was tested all along the route and estimates could be made of the cost of the digging; thereupon profiles could be drawn by the engineers. Each of the three great sections of the canal was subdivided into very small sections which were to be let to contractors; each working section was bounded, when possible, by a brook or ravine, in order that each contractor might have the advantage of independent drainage. The plan of the state's furnishing the tools for the work of digging the canal was soon changed, the contractors being expected to furnish their own tools. An instance of the skill of the old Erie Canal engineers, in a day when "surveying" was as loose a word as the dictionary contained, is interesting: "While ​Benjamin Wright, Esquire, was re-examining and laying off sections from Rome, west along the canal line, it was deemed expedient, as a test to the accuracy of the work, that James Geddes, Esquire, should start, at a given point on the canal line at Rome, and carry a level along the road to the east end of Oneida Lake, marking on permanent objects the height of the surface of the water while the lake was tranquil, at various places from the east to the west end, along its southern shore; that he should then connect by a level, the Oneida with the Onondaga Lake; after which he was to carry a level from the last mentioned lake, at Salina, south about one and a fourth miles to the canal line, and from thence to work to the east, laying off sections along the canal line. This was accomplished, and nine miles at the west end of the summit level were laid out into sections. And the commissioners have the satisfaction to state, that when the level of Mr. Wright had been carried along the canal line, to the place where Mr. Geddes had terminated his line, the levels of these engineers, which embraced a circuit . . ​of nearly one hundred miles, differed from each other less than one and an half inches."
The first contract for work on the Erie Canal was signed June 27, 1817. Work was not begun until a formal inaugural celebration at Rome, New York, July 4, 1817.
A Canal Lock at Rome, New York, Touching the Site of Fort Stanwix
​acclamations of the people, was begun that great work which has spread civilization, wealth and refinement. . ."
Thousands were ready to jump at the chance of securing contracts on the great work; money was scarce along the countryside and means to make it proportionately few; as was the case in the building of the Cumberland Road, a great contemporary work to the south, so the Erie Canal was an immediate boon to hundreds in that long strip of country through which the lines of stakes were driven. Most of the contractors were well-to-do New York farmers, and three-fourths of the army of laborers which now attacked the long task were native born; the foreign element which played so large a part in making the Cumberland Road did not figure in the building of the Erie Canal. Angry gangs of mutinous foreign laborers did not menace the first travelers on the Erie Canal. The commissioners had the good sense to mark out the work to be done in such a way that worthy men of little ​capital could secure contracts; accordingly the distances to be contracted for were divided up and men of small or no means at all were enabled to secure contracts as well as great contractors with armies of workmen in their employ. Money was frequently advanced to contractors in sums of from $200 to $2,000 according to the size of the contract. Good security was demanded. The commissioners, on the other hand, were warned to look out for rascally men who appear whenever any great work is to be undertaken. In building locks and embankments there was ample opportunity for deceit and dishonesty, which was an item to be reckoned with.
During the first season of work fifty-eight miles on the summit level were placed under contract, but most of the contractors were compelled to cease work when the frosts came. In December, 1817, from $200 to $1,000 each was advanced to contractors with which to buy provisions for their men; beef, pork, and flour were cheaper at this season than in the spring, and the roads over which they were to be trans​ported were likewise better in the winter season than at any other. This first year of work had brought its lessons; first and foremost it proved what a tremendous burden lay on the shoulders of the commissioners and engineers. Contracts innumerable were to be made and signed, calling for the provision of a hundred necessities: principally for stone, lumber, and lime; the proper quantities were to be deposited at the proper places—here in a heavy forest, there beside a swamp, and yonder at the foot of a hill. The country was quite innocent of anything that approached such a road as was needed everywhere along the line of work. It is difficult even to hint at the multitude of perplexing questions that the builders of the Erie Canal faced and somehow solved. The year had proved the advisability of discarding the spade and wheelbarrow—the European implements for canal building—for the plough and scraper. With the latter tools the work was more quickly done and better; the feet of the horses drawing them tended to solidify the earth along the embankments. Three Irishmen fin​ished three rods of the canal, four feet deep in five and one-half days. Sixteen and one-half days work accomplished 249½ cubic yards of canal, which at twelve and one-half cents per yard made $1.80 for each man per day. As the year progressed it was found that the contracts were inside of the figures of the estimates originally made.
When the season of 1818 was on, between two and three thousand men and half that number of horses and cattle were at work. Indeed some of the contractors had worked all winter, and many had transported the necessary provisions and tools for the summer's campaign to the points of work on sleds during the winter. The Genesee Road between Utica and Syracuse, the most important of all, was useless for heavy loads in the summer season. During this season the entire Middle Section was put under contract; the only important change of route was at the Marl Meadows near Camillus; this swamp without an outlet was avoided by running a new route through the Salina plains, at an estimated saving of some $17,000.
​In all the romantic story of the building of this great work nothing is so picturesque as the forest scenes; the digging and scraping, the hauling and cementing, is all commonplace beside throwing the canal across the tremendous forests which were now, in 1818, to be met in that smiling country of which Utica, Syracuse and Rochester are the jewels of today. Nothing like this had been attempted in America before the Erie Canal; true the Cumberland Road was crawling away across the Alleghenies and was now in calling distance of Wheeling on the Ohio; yet this road was built largely on the route of older thoroughfares, and much of its new bed ran through open lands which pioneer fires had partially cleared. Moreover it was built on the surface of the ground. The Erie Canal forged straight on where no foot but the silent hunter's had stepped; its course was marked in forests so dark that the surveyor's stakes could hardly be distinguished in the gloom—where not even the smoke of a pioneer's fire had ever penetrated; it was not built on the ground, but dug through the ground, and the vast network ​above ground in those ancient woods was not less easily penetrated than was the straggling mass of root and fiber that was found for many feet below the surface. No work in America before its time began to compare in magnitude with grubbing that sixty-foot aisle from Lake Erie to the Hudson and the digging of a forty-foot canal in its center.
Since necessity is the mother of invention, it is not strange that here in the New York woods should have been perfected some strange machinery—great tugging monsters which should bodily haul down immense trees with a crash and pluck out green stumps with single groan. It may be these engines of forestry were imported from Europe; we know from the correspondence of that indefatigable promoter, Washington, that great engines for clearing trees from forest land were known in Europe and were probably imported to America not long after the Revolutionary War. "Machinery has hitherto been used," recorded the commissioners of the Erie Canal, "with most success, in the ​heavy business of grubbing and clearing. By means of an endless screw, connected with a cable, a wheel and a crank, one man is able to bring down a tree of the largest size, without any cutting about its roots. For this purpose these means are all, except the cable, combined in a small but very strong frame of wood and iron.—This frame is immovably fastened on the ground, at a distance of perhaps one hundred feet from the foot of the tree, around the trunk of which fifty or sixty feet up, one end of the cable is secured, the other being connected with the roller. When this is done, the man turns the crank, which successively moves the screw, the wheel and the roller, on which, as the cable winds up, the tree must gradually yield, until, at length, it is precipitated by the weight of its top. The force which may be exerted in this way, upon a tree, is irresistible, as with the principle of the wheel and the screw, by the application of the cable at a point so far from the ground, it unites also that of the lever." The machine for hauling stumps is thus described: "Two strong wheels, sixteen feet in diame​ter, are made and connected together by a round axle-tree, twenty inches thick and thirty feet long; between these wheels, and with its spokes inseparably framed into their axle-tree, another wheel is placed, fourteen feet in diameter, round the rim of which a rope is several times passed, with one end fastened through the rim, and with the other end loose, but in such a condition as to produce a revolution of the wheel whenever it is pulled. This apparatus is so moved as to have the stump, on which it is intended to operate, midway between the largest wheels, and nearly under the axle-tree; and these wheels are so braced as to remain steady. A very strong chain is hooked, one end to the body of the stump, or its principal root, and the other to the axle-tree. The power of horses or oxen is then applied to the loose end of the rope above-mentioned, and as they draw, rotary motion is communicated, through the smallest wheel, to the axle-tree, on which, as the chain hooked to the stump winds up, the stump itself is gradually disengaged from the earth in which it grew. After this disengagement ​is complete, the braces are taken from the large wheels, which then afford the means of removing that stump out of the way, as well as of transporting the apparatus where it may be made to bear on another."
A plough was invented for cutting the tangled meshes of roots below the turf "greatly superior to the one in common use. It is very narrow or thin, and consists of a piece of iron much heavier than a common plough, strongly connected, at its upper edge, with the beam, and in the rear, with the handle, both of which are of the usual construction. The front edge of the iron, where the cutting is to be done, is covered with steel, well sharpened and shaped like the front of a coulter, except that it retreats more as it rises to the beam. The lower edge is made smooth and gradually thickens as it extends back towards the handle, to about four inches. Two yoke of oxen will draw this utensile through any roots not exceeding two inches in diameter; and by moving it, at short intervals, through the surface of the ground to be excavated, the small roots and fibres are so cut up as to be easily picked and ​harrowed out of the way of the shovel and scraper."
During the season of 1818, all but five of the ninety-four miles of Middle Section were grubbed and cleared with these powerful machines; little the wonder, however, for one of the stump machines, costing two hundred and fifty dollars, operated by seven men and two horses, could grub from thirty to forty large stumps a day. Of the eighty-nine miles cleared, forty-eight miles of the line was dug, eight miles being completed and accepted. One ten-mile stretch was half done and one twenty-mile division was one-fourth done. The total estimated expense of the Middle Section was $1,021,851; up to January 25, 1819, $578,549 had been expended; the $443,302 remaining was considered sufficient to complete the section.
This division of the canal was completed in 1819; for twenty-seven miles it was navigable and had not the frost intervened, large boats could have traversed its entire length before the close of the year. The expense proved to total up to $1,125,983, an excess over the estimate of $104,132. ​The explanation of this excess brings out some interesting facts concerning the progress of the work. For instance, the aqueducts over Oneida and Onondaga Creeks had been made of solid masonry instead of wood as stipulated in the estimate. Lack of snow during the winter of 1818–19 had prevented the hauling of much of the needed material. Sickness among the army of workmen had produced costly delays; pioneer conditions prevailed—the fever and ague of those who first invaded the sluggish morasses of the interior of a new continent. Special trouble had been experienced where the canal line approached the low-lying valley of the sluggish Seneca. For thirty-five miles the works paralleled this stream, and pioneers here suffered heavily every fall; of course the laborers on the canal were, to say the least, not more fortified against the miasma and fever than the pioneers who came more or less prepared for such drawbacks. At one time a thousand men on the Erie Canal were stricken down in this region, and in some instances the work on certain "jobs" was entirely abandoned for several weeks.
​But the work of the year was not confined to the Middle Section. Exploring parties had been sent to outline more specifically the canal line in the sections on either side. A portion of the Western Section, from the Genesee River to Palmyra, was put under contract, to be completed in September, 1821. The portion of the Eastern Section between Utica and Little Falls—a distance of twenty-six miles—was also put under contract. The expenses for the year amounted to over $100,000 ahead of the annual appropriation of $600,000. And heavier expenses yet were in sight; among these the claims of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company had to be satisfied. This company had been carrying on its business and declaring greater dividends each year up to 1818. In that year the Erie Canal works at Wood Creek interrupted the operation of their system and the state was compelled to satisfy the claim. There had been, ever since 1812, a correspondence between the canal commissioners and the Western Company looking toward a purchase of the latter's rights. The price asked in 1812, and ​again in 1817, was $190,000. The matter was at last settled in 1820 by the payment of $152,718.52. There was a moment just here when the canal came near pausing in its swift rush to completion. A recasting of the estimates was essayed, and the New York legislature demanded of the commissioner what portion of the canal was most important in case only a part could be completed. The reply was, of course, that the Western Section should be finished whether the Eastern could be or not. The estimated expense of completing the canal 254 miles from Utica to Lake Erie was $2,845,561; the Eastern Section, only ninety-eight miles long, would cost only $800,000 less, and for this distance the Mohawk River could be made to answer the purpose of a canal if necessary.
But as if pushed forward by the very momentum of its greatness, the canal went forward. The advances made in 1820 were rapid and important. In the Western Section the fifty odd miles between the Genesee and Montezuma were completed with the exception of nine. The route of 1816 was ​hardly changed except at Irondequoit Creek, and between Palmyra and Lyons. The Middle Section rapidly became a busy avenue. Mile posts were erected throughout its length, the distance from Genesee Street in Utica to the lock into the Seneca River being a little more than ninety-six miles. Navigation began in May. Contracts were let for the Eastern Section that would insure the completion of the thirty miles from Utica to Minden within the year. The course of the canal through the Mohawk Valley was resurveyed, the experienced engineer Canvass White pushing it forward to Cohoes Falls. The great rock wall at Little Falls was now completed. At the close of the year ninety-eight miles of the Erie Canal was completed, and the promise was that as much more would be done within a twelvemonth. The point of difficulty now was in the Western Section in gaining a route well supplied with water between Lake Erie and the Middle Section. During the present year Mr. Thomas had surveyed the northern route, running seventy-two miles from the Tonawanda to the Genesee.
View of Canal at Little Falls, New York, Showing Lock 37 in the Distance
​The contracts for this route were let in 1821, eighty miles being let in contracts. The fifty miles between the Genesee and Seneca were completed this year. Business was more brisk on the completed Middle Section than in the year previous, the tolls received amounting to $23,001.63. Contracts were let for the entire completion of the Eastern Section, and boats were already running from Utica to Little Falls. A large fraction of the excavating between Little Falls and Schenectady had been completed by the last of the year, and the difficult problem of a route from Cohoes Falls to Albany was now solved by Canvass White by crossing the Mohawk.
By June, 1823, the canal was open from Rochester to Schenectady, and when the season opened 220 miles were navigable. During 1822 all but ten miles of the route along the Niagara River had been put under contract and the great Genesee aqueduct had been erected. Toll to the extent of $3,286 was collected in this year on the eastern part of the Western Section—at Lyons, Palmyra, and Rochester. By the middle of November water had been ad​mitted into the Eastern Section and boats were afloat from Little Falls to Schenectady. Water was admitted into the stretch of canal between Brockport and Rochester, October 10, 1823. The forty-five miles from Brockport to the Mountain Ridge (Lockport) was well along; the four great embankments in this distance were nearly complete; that at Sandy Creek was the highest on the entire canal, running up seventy-six feet. The tolls in 1823 between the Genesee and Seneca amounted to $20,954.11, showing the large amount of business done.
As the last year before completion (1824) opened, all eyes were directed to two points in the west which were each difficult puzzles. One was the means of crossing the Mountain Ridge at Lockport and the other was the best way to get into Lake Erie. Finally the latter question was settled for better or for worse by letting the contracts for the Black Rock harbor. The work went slowly at the Mountain Ridge, but the contractors promised that the work there would be completed by May, 1825. The tolls this year between Mantz and ​Utica amounted to $77,593.26, and the tolls on the Eastern Section totaled up to $27,444.09. Water was admitted into the canal between Schenectady and Albany in October; the work here, which included twenty-nine locks, had been found unexpectedly difficult. On October 8, 1823, the first boats passed from the West and the North (Lake Champlain canal) through the junction canal into the tide water of the Hudson at Albany. On September 8, 1824, water was sent into the canal from Brockport and Lockport; the line to Black Rock and the Black Rock harbor was completed nearly on scheduled time. Among improvements of the year must be named the hydrostatic locks built at Utica and Syracuse. The tolls of 1824 were $294,546.62. The grand canal was completed.
The completion was a signal for a royal celebration throughout the state of New York which is, in many aspects, of great historic interest. Its unique details, the ​non-participation of many, the violent rejoicings of others, the carrying out of symbolic ceremonies not unlike Roman pageants, all these and many other features of the great show have a deep significance. The political element entered largely into the matter.
Learning that the canal would be completed about October 26, the corporation of New York City entered into correspondence with the chief cities and towns along the line concerning the proper celebration of the event. Two aldermen, King and Davis, were sent to Buffalo from New York to participate in the festivities of the great occasion.
Buffalo was in gala dress on the day set for the pageant. The city was filled with yeomanry. At nine o'clock in the morning the grand procession formed before the court-house; the Buffalo band, squads of riflemen, and the committees took the lead and the vast throng moved to the head of the Erie Canal where the canal-boat "Seneca Chief" lay at anchor. Governor Clinton, the lieutenant-governor, and the committees were received on board, and ​Jesse Hawley, who, nearly a generation before, had published in Pittsburg the first broadside in favor of the canal, delivered an address in behalf of the citizens of Rochester, "to mingle and reciprocate their mutual congratulations with the citizens of Buffalo on this grand effort."
The "Seneca Chief" was bravely equipped and manned for the occasion. Two great paintings occupied conspicuous positions. One presented the scene which was at the moment being enacted, Buffalo Creek and harbor with the canal in the foreground and the "Seneca Chief" moving away. The other picture represented Governor Clinton as Hercules, in Roman costume resting from hard labor. Among the articles of freight to be carried by this boat, which should first pass from Buffalo to New York over the Erie canal, were two kegs filled with Lake Erie water. In addition to the governor of the state and his staff, the Buffalo committee embarked on the "Seneca Chief," comprising Hon. Judge Wilkinson, Captain Joy, Colonel Potter, Major Burt, Colonel Dox, and Doctor Stagg. The flotilla, which was headed ​by the "Seneca Chief," consisted of the canal-boats "Chief," "Superior," "Commodore Perry" (a freight boat), and the "Buffalo" (of Erie, Pennsylvania). "Noah's Ark" was the name of another craft which contained beasts, birds and creeping things—a bear, two eagles, two fawns, several fish, and two Indian boys, all traveling under the title of "products of the West."
When the flotilla set sail a signal gun was discharged at Buffalo; the announcement was taken up by each gun in a long line from Buffalo to New York and the signal was passed throughout the entire distance.
As the pageant moved along through the state it was joined ever and anon by other craft and at almost every village exercises and illuminations were the order of the day and the much-feted governor and committees were hauled to the best hotel and feasted. The "Niagara" joined the squadron at Black Rock and "fell in behind." At Lockport guns captured by Perry at the battle of Lake Erie were fired in salute to the guests and the occasion; a gunner who, ​it was said, had fought under Napoleon, discharged them. At Holley an address was given on the twenty-seventh. At Brockport cannon welcomed the boats. There was a procession at Newport, as everywhere else where the guests were feted. At Rochester a feu de joie was fired from the aqueduct on the arrival of the triumphal flotilla, and here a fine boat, the "Young Lion of the West," rode out to meet it.
"Who comes there?" cried the "Young Lion's" sentinel as the strangers drew near.
"Your Brothers from the West, on the waters of the great Lakes."
"By what means have they been diverted so far from their natural course?"
"By the channel of the Grand Erie Canal."
"By whose authority, and by whom, was a work of such magnitude accomplished?"
"By the authority and by the enterprise of the patriotic People of the State of New York."
The procession being formed, the vast throng marched to the Presbyterian church ​where an address was delivered by Timothy Childs. General Matthews, assisted by Jesse Hawley, presided at a banquet which followed at one of the hotels. Grand illuminations and a ball concluded the day's entertainment. The Rochester committee consisting of Messrs. E. B. Strong, Ward, Leavett, Rochester, Hulbert, Reynolds, A. Strong, R. Beach, Johnson, and E. S. Beach, embarked on the "Young Lion" for New York.
At Palmyra an arch across the canal welcomed the pageant on the twenty-eighth; it read "Clinton and the Canal" from one side, and "Internal Improvements" on the reverse. Another arch at Montezuma, which was reached late that evening, was a transparency displaying the words "De Witt Clinton and Internal Improvements" on one side, and "Union of the East and West" on the other.
Buckville was found brightly illuminated at midnight; Port Byron was reached on the twenty-ninth and Weedsport was illuminated. A twenty-four pounder was discharged, resulting in the death of only two. Syracuse was reached on the thir​tieth; Joshua Forman, the early champion of the canal in 1810, gave an address to which Governor Clinton made reply.
At Rome probably the first indication of ill-feeling was met; exercises had been held on the twenty-sixth to commemorate the opening of the canal, but dissatisfaction was felt over the fact that the Erie Canal did not follow the route of the old Western Inland Lock Navigation Company canal upon which the village of Rome had grown up. In consequence, at 11 A. M. on the twenty-sixth, a procession was formed bearing a black barrel filled with water from the old canal. Drums were muffled and the procession moved slowly out of town to the Erie Canal into which the barrel was emptied. The return march was made at quick step and at the hotel an appropriate celebration was held. The present flotilla arrived on Sunday, the thirtieth, and remained only an hour. Utica was reached at noon on this date; during the exercises held on the morrow, Governor Clinton took occasion to pay high tribute to Utica's citizen, Judge Platt, who had long befriended the canal movement. ​Little Falls was reached Monday evening; here, too, a change of route displeased some; the old Lock Company canal was on the north side of the Mohawk, and the Erie Canal was on the south side; a banquet was served the guests at one of the hotels. At three o'clock Tuesday afternoon, Schenectady was reached—two hours ahead of scheduled time. Here a grave reception awaited the enthusiastic voyageurs; a local paper had mentioned "a project of a funeral procession, or some other demonstration of mourning." No preparation for the reception of the visitors had been made. The canal would, it was believed, be the ruin of Schenectady; as the terminus of the old overland portage of sixteen miles from Albany, the town had grown in size and wealth; a large part of all the freight from the south that passed up the Mohawk came by wagon to Schenectady and was there loaded on boats. The village was, on one hand, a Mecca for wagon lines and wagons, and on the other the terminus of Mohawk shipping. The Erie Canal overturned everything. A waterway was now opened straight through to ​Albany; Cohoes Falls, which had been the making of Schenectady, was wiped out of existence by the Erie Canal and the Schenectady of the old days was a thing of the past. The students of Union College, however, were cosmopolitan, and the "College Guards" did the honors of the rainy day; the guests took dinner at a hotel and were off at four o'clock. On the following morning, above the patroon mansion of General Stephen Van Rensselaer, the flotilla was met by the aldermen of Albany and the last lock in the long canal was entered at 10:30 A. M. Twenty-four cannon announced the flotilla's arrival. The procession that soon formed moved slowly to the capital; after a prayer and an ode, the address of the day was delivered by Philip Hone.
At nine o'clock on Thursday morning, November 3, the flotilla set sail from Albany on the broad Hudson; the canal boats were in tow of strong steamers, the "Chancellor Livingston" leading the way. Unfortunately "Noah's Ark" with its bears and Indians had not kept up with the main procession and did not arrive in time to ​start for New York. The steamers swept the boats rapidly onward; they were saluted at Catskill, West Point and Newburgh, and arrived at New York at daylight of November 4, anchoring near the state prison.
The steamer "Washington," magnificently decorated, came alongside the "Chancellor Livingston" bearing the committees of the Corporation and the officers of the Governor's Guard. Alderman Cowdrey made an address to which Clinton replied. At nine o'clock the fleet from Albany accompanied by a fleet bearing the Corporation set out for open sea. The spectacle was one to attract much attention. Salutes were fired from the Battery, from the forts on Governor's Island, and from Forts Lafayette and Tompkins. The destination of the pageant was indicated by the U. S. schooner "Porpoise" which preceded the other craft and moored within the Hook, where the interesting ceremony of wedding the waters of the Atlantic and the Great Lakes was to be held. " . . Never before," wrote an enraptured beholder, "was there such a fleet collected, and so superbly decorated; and it is very ​possible that a display so grand, so beautiful, and we may even add, sublime, will never again be witnessed. We know of nothing with which it can be compared. . . The orb of day darted his genial rays upon the bosom of the waters, where they played as tranquilly as upon the natural mirror of a secluded lake. Indeed the elements seemed to repose, as if to gaze upon each other, and participate in the beauty and grandeur of the sublime spectacle." At the auspicious moment the Governor of New York permitted the water from Lake Erie to fall into the ocean, saying: "This solemnity, at this place, on the first arrival of vessels from Lake Erie, is intended to indicate and commemorate the navigable communication, which has been accomplished between our Mediterranean Seas and the Atlantic Ocean, in about eight years, to the extent of more than four hundred and twenty-five miles, by the wisdom, public spirit, and energy of the people of the state of New York; and ​may the God of the Heavens and the Earth smile most propitiously on this work, and render it subservient to the best interests of the human race." Whereupon the "Young Lion of the West" gave a brave salute from "a pair of brazen lungs" which he had provided for himself at Rochester, and a collation was served on the fleet.
While these inspiriting scenes were being enacted, the greatest procession, it was said, that ever had been formed in America to date, was preparing in the city under the direction of Major-general Fleming; all classes were represented, the military and civil societies, educational institutions, the city departments, state artillery and benevolent and mechanical organizations, the whole enlivened by the playing of many bands. At 10:30 o'clock the line, one mile and a half in length, began its march. From Greenwich Street, the route was through Canal to Broadway, up Broadway to Broome, up Broome to the Bowery, down the Bowery to Pearl, down Pearl to the Battery, and thence to Broadway and ​the City Hall. At night the illuminations were beautiful, the commonest being the letter "C" and "Grand Canal;" the New York Coffee House, the City Hotel, Peale's Museum, Scudder's Museum, Chatham and Park theaters had elaborate displays. The illuminations of the City Hall were "surpassingly beautiful." The exhibition of fireworks in New York was said to be the greatest in its history. On Monday evening, November 7, the celebration was concluded by a grand ball at the Lafayette Amphitheatre in Laurens Street; in order to secure the necessary space required, the floor of the amphitheater was connected with the floors of an adjacent circus building on one side and the floor of a riding school on the other; as a result the largest ball room in America was temporarily formed, measuring two hundred feet in length and from sixty to one hundred feet in width. Above the proscenium were emblazoned the names of the engineers of the "Grand Canal"—Briggs, White, Geddes, Wright, and Thomas; also the names of the past and present canal commissioners—Hart, Bouck, Holly, De Witt, ​Livingston, Fulton, Clinton, Van Rensselaer, Morris, Eddy, Young, Seymour, Porter, and Ellicott. In the ladies' banquet room a boat made of maple sugar—the gift of Colonel Hinman of Utica to Governor Clinton—floated proudly on Lake Erie water.
At the conclusion of the great celebration the committee from the West departed for Lake Erie, carrying with them a keg of Atlantic water, ornamented with the arms of the city of New York and the following words in letters of gold: "Neptune's return to Pan. New York, 4th Nov. 1825. Water of the Atlantic."
And the last scene in this old pageant was enacted at Buffalo on November 23; at ten o'clock of the morning of that day the committee, accompanied by a band, were towed out into the basin of Lake Erie; the waters of the Atlantic were poured into the lake, Juge Wilkinson delivering an appropriate address. In the evening a concluding celebration was held at the Eagle Tavern. The waters of the ocean and the Great Lakes were at last united; how largely the celebration was inspired by ​political interests it is impossible to say. The fact remains that the pageant was one of the most significant in American history and marked a new era in the commercial awakening of America.
* ↑ See appendix A.
* ↑ The material for the earlier portions of this chapter is largely from the annual reports of the canal commissioners from 1816 to 1825 contained in Public Documents relating to the New-York Canals (New York, 1821), pp. 103–185, 311–333, 344–365, 429–450, and Laws of the State of New-York relative to the Canals, vol. ii, pp. 60–78, 95–118, 150–180.
* ↑ Appendix B.
* ↑ M. S. Hawley, Origin of the Erie Canal, pp. 41–42; Hawley's source of information was Judge Platt, one of the Council.
* ↑ Id., pp. 42–43. Cf. p. 143, referring to the change of route at Rome and consequent dissatisfaction.
* ↑ Sparks's Writings of Washington, vol. ii, pp. 341, 342.
* ↑ Public Documents (1821), p. 403.
* ↑ For elaborate account of this celebration see W. L. Stone's Narrative of the Festivities observed in honor of the Completion of the Grand Erie Canal (New York, 1825), and local histories.
* ↑ W. L. Stone, Narrative of the Festivities observed in honor of the Completion of the Grand Erie Canal, p. 321. This monograph has been used extensively in describing the celebration festivities.
* ↑ Id., pp. 320–321.
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