Canal History - New York State Canals Home » History & Education » Canal History Canal History The New York State Canal System is not only rich in history, but also culture. Many immigrants worked long and hard on "Clinton’s Ditch" to create this magnificent waterway. Folklore, songs and speech lingo emerged from those individuals working along the Canal. As the population grew and the Canal prospered, it became not only a transportation waterway, but also a vacation area for the well-to-do. At one time, more than 50,000 people depended on the Erie Canal for their livelihood. From its inception, the Erie Canal helped form a whole new culture revolving around canal life. For many, canal boats became floating houses, traveling from town to town. The father would serve as captain, while the mother cooked for the family and crew and the children, if old enough, would serve as "hoggees" and would walk alongside the mules to lead them along at a steady pace. For those who traveled along the Canal in packet boats or passenger vessels, the Canal was an exciting place.

Gambling and entertainment were frequent pastimes on the Canal and often, families would meet each year at the same locations to share stories and adventures. Today, the Canal has returned to its former glory and is filled with pleasure boats, fishermen and cyclists riding the former towpaths where mules once trod. The excitement of the past is alive and well. The Erie Canal: A Brief History "Traveling on the Erie Canal" The original Illustration was taken from Graham's Magazine, 1828. The source image was Handset and Letterpress Printed at the Printing Office of the Farmers' Museum, Cooperstown, NY. Begun in 1817 and opened in its entirety 1825, the Erie Canal is considered the engineering marvel of the 19th Century. When the federal government concluded that the project was too ambitious to undertake, the State of New York took on the task of carving 363 miles of canal through the wilderness with nothing but the muscle power of men and horses. Once derided as “Clinton’s Folly” for the Governor who lent his vision and political muscle to the project, the Erie Canal experienced unparalleled success almost overnight.

The iconic waterway established settlement patterns for most of the United States during the 19th century, made New York the financial capital of the world, provided a critical supply line which helped the North win the Civil War, and precipitated a series of social and economic changes throughout a young America. Explorers had long searched for a water route to the west. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the lack of an efficient, safe transportation network kept populations - and trade - largely confined to coastal areas. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Allegheny Mountains were the Western Frontier. The Northwest Territories that would later become Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio were rich in timber, minerals, and fertile land for farming. It took weeks to reach these precious resources. Travelers were faced with rutted turnpike roads that baked to hardness in the summer sun. In the winter, the roads dissolved in a sea of mud. An imprisoned flour merchant named Jesse Hawley envisioned a better way: a Canal from Buffalo on the eastern shore of Lake Erie to Albany on the upper Hudson River, a distance of almost 400 miles.

Long a proponent of efficient water transportation, Hawley had gone bankrupt trying to get his product to market from what is now Rochester. Sent to debtor’s prison as a result, Hawley wrote a series of essays which were published in the Genesee Messenger beginning in 1807, describing in great detail the route, costs, and benefits of what would become the Erie Canal. Hawley’s essays caught the eye of Assemblyman Joshua Forman, who submitted the first State legislation related to the Erie Canal in 1808, calling for a series of surveys to be made examining the practicality of a water route between Lake Erie and the Hudson River. Forman even traveled to Washington to make a case for federal support for the Canal, at which point Thomas Jefferson described the proposal as “a little short of madness.” In 1810, Thomas Eddy, Treasurer of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company and State Senator Jonas Platt, hoping to get plans for the Canal moving forward, approached influential Senator De Witt Clinton -- former mayor of New York City and a rising political star -- to enlist his support.

On March 13th, a measure was introduced in the State Senate naming a Canal Commission and directing the commissioners to survey a route for the Canal which would connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. With Clinton’s support, the measure passed, and the Erie Canal era had begun. Though Clinton had been recruited to the Canal effort by Eddy and Platt, he quickly became one of the Canal’s most active supporters, and went on to tie his very political fate to the success of the Canal. Today, De Witt Clinton and the story of the Erie Canal are inextricably linked, and there is no doubt that Governor Clinton grasped at the time the revolutionary impact the Canal would have once it opened: “The city will, in the course of time, become the granary of the world, the emporium of commerce, the seat of manufactures, the focus of great moneyed operations,” said Clinton. “And before the revolution of a century, the whole island of Manhattan, covered with inhabitants and replenished with a dense population, will constitute one vast city.” Though the War of 1812 created a lengthy interruption in the project’s progress, Clinton and his fellow Canal proponents continued to work to build support for the waterway.

In 1816, as a sitting Canal Commissioner, DeWitt Clinton submitted a formal petition to a joint committee of the New York State Senate and Assembly to create a canal system between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. This document, known as the "New York Memorial", generated a series of public meetings in support of the Canal’s construction and effectively began the movement in the state to build the waterway. Ultimately, over one hundred thousand New Yorkers would sign the petition, helping to build a ground swell of public support for the project. On April 15th, 1817, the New York State Legislature finally approved construction of the Erie Canal, which Jesse Hawley had written so compellingly about just a decade earlier. The bill authorized $7 million for construction of the 363-mile long waterway, which was to be 40 feet wide and four feet deep. Construction would begin on July 4th, in Rome, NY and would take eight years. Also in 1817, Clinton would leverage his success championing the Canal’s construction into the Governor’s office, his election culminating his meteoric political rise over the years.

The completion of the Erie Canal spurred the first great westward movement of American settlers, gave access to the rich land and resources west of the Appalachians and made New York the preeminent commercial city in the United States. Erie canal THE ERIE CANAL The Erie Canal: Facilitating Travel TO Michigan Regardless of the prevailing views of Michigans land and climate, a more important factor is delaying any large-scale movement into Michigan in the immediate postwar years was the difficulty in reaching the territory. Transportation to Michigan by water was "dangerous, unreliable, and fraught with discomfort." Navigation on Lake Erie was regarded as more dangerous than on the Atlantic. Accommodations for passengers were poor. To reach Detroit from the south by land it was necessary to cross the Black Swamp in northwestern Ohio. In rainy periods the swamp was virtually impassable. The horrors of the Black Swamp were widely publicized. At a time when plenty of good land was still available in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, there was little incentive for the pioneer to brave the hazards involved in getting to Michigan.

The completion in 1825 of the Erie Canal (below), connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson River, was an event of major importance in Michigan history because it greatly facilitated the transportation of passengers and freight between the eastern seaboard and Michigan ports. Source: Unknown The canal, built by the state of New York at a cost of $7 million, was such a success that within three years toll charges had paid the cost of construction plus interest charges. For the first time, New England families, anxious to leave rocky and infertile fields for richer lands in the West, had a route for reaching the "promised land." Furthermore, the waterway provided not only an easier way to move to Michigan but access to markets in the East. Freight rates between Buffalo and New York were reduced from $100 a ton to $25 a ton with the opening of an all-water route between the two cities, and the rates soon fell even lower. Important as it was, the Erie Canal did not cause the great migration to Michigan; it only facilitated that movement.

This is shown by the fact that public land sales at Detroit reached a high point in 1825, the year the Erie Canal opened, and then declined in the years immediately following. Whereas 92,232 acres had been sold in 1825, sales were down to 70,441 by 1830. The Erie Canal, in New York state (shown below), was 360 mi (580 km) long, and connected New York with the Great Lakes via the Hudson River. Locks were built to overcome the 571-ft (174-m) difference between the level of the river and that of Lake Erie. It opened in 1825. Source: Unknown Source: Unknown In its early days, the canal was not very large (see below), but it was large enough to move Michigan's grain and wool east, thereby providing Michigan with a market for it's commodities, which rapidly fueled the influx of settlers. Source: Unknown The boats used on the Canal were generally flat-bottomed, and usually hauled grains, wool, whiskey, and sometimes meat.

Source: Unknown Land Transportation For the improvement of land transportation within the territory, Michigan relied heavily on the federal government. In 1816 troops of the Detroit garrison began building a road to the rapids of the Maumee River, near the present city of Toledo. By 1819 it was "cut through" and bridges over rivers and marshes had been built, but the road was still poorly located and almost impassable for wagons. A road across the Black Swamp from the settled part of Ohio to the Maumee Rapids was completed the same year. Thus, by 1827 land transportation to Detroit from the south had been greatly improved. Roads from Detroit into the interior were required, however, before any large-scale settlement of Michigan territory was possible. In 1816 the territorial government launched a project to build a road northward from Detroit, but the road was inadequate and by 1822 had reached only as far as Pontiac. A post road from Pontiac through Flint to Saginaw was laid out in 1823. Intervening swamps made progress difficult. The first road westward also was a military road, designed to connect Detroit with Fort Dearborn.

It followed the path of the Old Sauk Trail and is the approximate route of the present US 12. It ran westward from Detroit to Ypsilanti, then veered to the southwest, and continued through the southernmost tier of Michigan counties. The eastern portions of this road were in use by the latter 1820s, and by 1835 two stagecoaches a week operated between Detroit and Fort Dearborn. This highway, known then as the Chicago Road, became "practically an extension of the Erie Canal and...a great axis of settlement in southern Michigan". Another road westward was known as the Grand River Road. It generally followed the route of the present I-96 freeway, and in places is still known as "Grand River Avenue". It followed an old Indian trail. These roads were a far cry from their modern counterparts. It can hardly be said that they were "built" at all, as we think of highway building today. Surveyors selected the route, often following Indian trails, axemen cut away the brush and felled trees low enough along the path so wagons could pass over the stumps, and workman constructed crude bridges over streams which could not easily be forded.

Logs were laid across the road over bogs and swamps to prevent wagons and animals from miring. This was known as a "corduroy road". Other than this, little was done to provide a surface for the roads. They were notoriously bad. Settlers along the roads took a proprietary interest in the mudholes, and the right to pull wagons out of one of them for a price was recognized as belonging to the man who lived nearest to it. It was said that these mudholes were fostered carefully in dry weather; one tavern keeper found a buyer for his property partly, it was said, because he had nearby an especially profitable mudhole. Since the roads were laid out to follow the routes having the fewest obstacles, they were seldom straight. A description of the Chicago Road stated that it "stretches itself by devious and irregular windings east and west like a huge serpent lazily pursuing its onward course utterly unconcerned as to its destination. Bad as they were, these roads were of utmost importance in the early settlement of Michigan. Trails branched off along the routes followed by the major roads, which served to guide the traveler to a destination beyond the main roads.

Along the chief roads taverns were built and towns sprang up. Finally, by the end of the 1820's, with the relinquishment of Indian claims to the lands in southern Michigan, the rapid progress of the surveys, the opening of land offices, and the improvement of transportation facilities, the way had been prepared for what shortly developed into one of the great land booms in all of American history as settlers poured into and across the lower third of Michigans southern peninsula. The map below shows the tremendous influx of settlers to the state during the early 1800's, especially in the 1830's. Source: Unknown The Economic History of the Erie Canal USA The Economic History of the Erie Canal The Erie Canal, or the Great Western Canal as it was initially known, was one of the most important state projects of the early years of the United States. It proved to be overwhelmingly succcessful and its success prompted other state economic development projects. Before the Erie Canal was built New York City was not the premier port of the United States that it became. Philadelphia was the largest, most prosperous city of the new United States. The Erie Canal provided the base for New York City's rise.

The United States had to great water transportation systems: the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio River System and the Great Lakes Water System. These two were linked through the agency of the city of Chicago. The outlet to the sea of the Great Lakes System was through Canada by way of the St. Lawrence River. The initial thinking was to link the Great Lakes System to the Hudson River by way of a canal connecting with Lake Ontario. There was traffic on the natural rivers south of Lake Ontario which empty into the Hudson River. The beginning of the Erie Canal project can be traced back to the creation of two Inland Lock Navigation Companies, a Western and a Northern version, as corporations in 1792. A corporation was a relatively rare form of business at that time and had to be created by special legislative act. The purpose of the Inland Lock Navigation Companies was to establish a water route connection between the Hudson River on the east and Lake Seneca and Lake Ontario on the west. The Inland Lock Navigation Company built dams and locks but was not able to build more than two miles of canal during the reast of the 1790's.

A man named Jesse Hawley while in debtors' prison during 1807-8 wrote up a plan to connect the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Hawley's plans were influential enough to bring the project to the attention of the mayor of New York City, DeWitt Clinton, who became a strong supporter of the idea. New York State Legislature in 1808 appropriated funds for a survey of possible routes for such a canal. The Legislature in 1810 created a Canal Commission and appointed its members. The Commissioners immediately requested financial aid from the Federal Government. The politicians Jeffersonian Republican Party, later known as the Democratoc Party, had doubst that there was any legal basis in the Constitution for any Federal Government involvement in such development projects. Thomas Jefferson himself disparaged the project as sheer madness. The Constitution was explicit in that only those powers delineated were exercised by the Federal Government, all other powers were the province of the state government. Only by absurdly broad interpretation of the empowerment clauses in the Constitution has the Federal Government been able to assume the powers it has today. The Hamiltonian Federalist and later Whig Party had no qualms about the Federal Government assuming an activists role in economic development.

With Jeffersonian politicians in power the request of the Canal Commission of New York for the funding of a canal system was turned down. Also the requests for financial aid from states adjacent to New York were dismissed. These had even less chance of a positive response than the request to the Federal Government. The War of 1812 started soon after the Canal Commission came into being. During the duration of that war, 1812 to 1814, the economy prospered but the limitations of the transportation system was sorely felt. In 1817 Congress did pass an act providing for the funding of a canal for New York but President James Madison, a Jeffersonian Democrat, vetoed the bill. That same year DeWitt Clinton, a Jeffersonian Democrat, was elected to the governorship of New York. Clinton was a strong supporter of the canal. With Governor Clinton's support a bill was passed which provided for the construction of two canals. The Western Canal, later called the Erie Canal, was to connect Lake Erie with the Hudson River. The Northern Canal was to connect Lake Champlain with the Hudson River. The Western Canal project was divided into three parts.

The middle section was deemed to be of the greatest priority because it would significantly extend the navigation from the existing natural waterways based upon the rivers. It also was the relatively easiest to build. The hope was that the completion of the middle section would increase public support for the project. The initial design for a canal forty feet wide and four feet deep. It was to cost $7 million. By 1819 the middle section of the Erie Canal extending 98 miles had been completed. By 1820 transportation on the middle had begun, most of the western section was completed and construction of the eastern section had begun. The Champlain Canal was nearing completion. In 1823 the first boats from both the Erie Canal and from the Champlain Canal entered the Hudson River. By 1825 the entire Erie Canal was completed and it was declared officially open in October 1826. DeWitt Clinton traveled with three boats which started from Buffalo, New York and completed their 363 mile journey nine days later in New York City. In an act of public project exuberance the New York Legislature passed The Great Canal Act which called for the surveying of routes for seventeen other canals.

Shortly after the opening of the Erie and Champlain Canals the Legislature created a Canal Board to govern the canal operations and adjudicate complaints concerning the canals. Although there was great enthusiasm for the Erie Canal in those early years the technology which would ultimately make it obsolete was being put into place. A railroad connecting Albany and Schenectady was completed in 1831. In 1836 a program for the enlargement of the Erie Canal to a seventy foot width and a seven foot depth was initiated. However in 1842 the Legislature passed an act, called the Stop and Tax, which required the raising of funds for public projects from tax funds rather than public borrowing. This brought most canal construction, including that of the Erie Canal Enlargement Program, to a halt. It was not until 1847 that work on the Erie Canal Enlargement resumed. At the same time the State of New York government was encouraging the development of canals it was also encouraging the development of railroads, the competing transportation system. For a short period the state government tried to protect the financial interests of the canals by prohibiting the railroads from carrying cargo, but this absurd restriction was soon lifted.

In 1853 the New York Central Railroad was created by the consolidation of several smaller railroads. The Erie Canal Enlargement program was completed in 1862. The toll charges not only paid for the construction of the canal but brought in a surplus which covered a substanial portion of the New York State budget. In 1882 the toll charges for the Erie Canal were eliminated. In 1895 a second enlargement program for the Erie Canal was initiated. It called for a deepening of the canal to nine feet and was known as The Nine Million Dollar Improvement . But work on this second enlargement program was stopped in 1898 due to a lack of funds. The canals were losing the transport business to railroads because of the superior service which the railroads provided. The railroads were faster and operated year around while the canal were out of service for five months of the year due to their being frozen. In 1898 Theodore Roosevelt, as Governor of New York, appointed a Committee on Canals The Committee's recommendations led to the creation of the Barge Canal System for New York.

This called for, among other measures, the enlargement of the Canal to a 125 foot width and a minimum depth of twelve feet. There were also major changes in the route of the Erie Canal which amounted to virtual abandonment of the original course of the canal in the middle and eastern sections. The new route made greater use of rivers channels. Six rivers along the route were canalized. By 1918 the entire Barge Canal System was completed and opened. This System, besides the Erie Canal, included the Champlain Canal, the Oswego Canal and the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. Over the decades the Barge Canal System became less and less significant as a transportation system. In 1991 the long term leasing of Barge Canal System land was approved through an amendment to the New York State Constitution. The next year the control of the New York State Canal System was transferred by legislative act from the New York State Department of Transportation to the New York State Thruway Authority. In 1995 a Canal Recreation Commission was created to advise the Thruway Authority on plans and activities concerning the Canal System.

A Canal Recreation Plan was adopted and in 1996 a five-year program for the revitalization of the Canal System was initiated. This program was to cost $32 million. The Financial Impacts of the Erie Canal The financial information about the canal is not complete, but there is enough to discern that it was a financial bonanza. Here are some of the facts available: The original Erie Canal cost $7 million to build and this was carried out over the years 1818 to 1825. The legislative act allowing bonds to be sold to finance the canals' construction specified a maximum interest rate of 6 percent. This apparently was the interest rate which the bonds actually paid. Over the period from 1824 to 1882 the total tolls collected amounted to approximately $121 million. This ranged from $300 thousand in 1824 to $4.5 million in 1862. The Social Impact of the Canal System The economic and finanacial impact of the canal system was extraordinary. The social impacts were also extraordinary. Some of them were not obvious. The availability of a wider variety of goods was one of the obvious impacts.

The newspapers settled upon the availability of fresh oysters from the Atlantic Coast as the best illustration of this. Fresh oysters were not available in upstate New York before the canal system because land transportation was too slow as well as too expensive to get oysters there before they spoiled. There were many, many commodities that were unavailable inland when the only mode of transport was horse and wagon. The unobvious social impact that got most public attention was the impact of the behavior of the canal boat crews. The canal boats were pulled along by horses and mules guided by young men. These young men were often orphans who in that day and age had find a means of supporting themselves. They not only did not have the benefit of formal education they lacked the civilizing influence of mothers and fathers. Teenagers, particularly boys, even under the best of circumstances are often an exasperation to adults. One can imagine the consternation of the staid residents of Upstate New York at the behavior of the canal boat crews when they were not at work. They drank, they gambled and they fought. Some pious locals along the canal routes were concerned that the canal boat operation on Sundays violated the Sabbath and petitioned to prohibit boat transport on Sundays.

Other pious but more practical residents said that the boats should be allowed to operate on Sundays because if the crews were idle on Sundays they would more seriously violate the Sabbath with their drinking, swearing, gambling and fighting. The more practical view won out and the boats continued to move on Sundays. (To be continued.) The History of Erie Canal By Matt Rosenberg Updated July 30, 2015. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the new nation known as the United States of America began to develop plans to improve transportation into the interior and beyond the great physical barrier of the Appalachian Mountains. A major goal was to link Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes with the Atlantic Coast through a canal. The Erie Canal, completed on October 25, 1825 improved transportation and helped populate the interior of the U.S. The Route Many surveys and proposals were developed to build a canal but it was ultimately a survey performed in 1816 that established the route of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal would connect to the port of New York City by beginning at the Hudson river near Troy, New York. The Hudson River flows into New York Bay and past the west side of Manhattan in New York City.

From Troy, the canal would flow to Rome (New York) and then through Syracuse and Rochester to Buffalo, located on the northeast coast of Lake Erie. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States Funding Once the route and plans for the Erie Canal were established, it was time to obtain funds. The United States Congress easily approved a bill to provide funding for what was then known as the Great Western Canal, but President James Monroe found the idea unconstitutional and vetoed it. Therefore, the New York State legislature took the matter into its own hands and approved state funding for the canal in 1816, with tolls to pay back the state treasury for upon completion. New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton was a major proponent of a canal and supported efforts for its construction. In 1817 he fortuitously become governor of the state and was able to thus oversee aspects of the canal construction, which later became known as "Clinton's Ditch" by some. Construction Begins On July 4, 1817, construction of the Erie Canal began in Rome, New York. The first segment of the canal would proceed east from Rome to the Hudson River.

Many canal contractors were simply wealthy farmers along the canal route, contracted to construct their own tiny portion of the canal. Thousands of British, German, and Irish immigrants provided the muscle for the Erie Canal, which had to be dug with shovels and horse power - without the use of today's heavy earth moving equipment. The 80 cents to one dollar a day that laborers were paid was often three times the amount laborers could earn in their home countries. The Erie Canal Is Completed On October 25, 1825, the entire length of the Erie Canal was complete. The canal consisted of 85 locks to manage a 500 foot (150 meter) rise in elevation from the Hudson River to Buffalo. The canal was 363 miles (584 kilometers) long, 40 feet (12 m) wide, and 4 feet deep (1.2 m). Overhead aqueducts were used to allow streams to cross the canal. Reduced Shipping Costs The Erie Canal cost $7 million dollars to build but reduced shipping costs significantly. Before the canal, the cost to ship one ton of goods from Buffalo to New York City cost $100.

After the canal, the same ton could be shipped for a mere $10. The ease of trade prompted migration and the development of farms throughout the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest. Farm fresh produce could be shipped to the growing metropolitan areas of the East and consumer goods could be shipped west. Before 1825, more than 85% of the population of New York State lived in rural villages of less than 3,000 people. With the opening of the Erie Canal, the urban to rural ratio began to change dramatically. Goods and people were transported quickly along the canal - freight sped along the canal at about 55 miles per 24 hour period, but express passenger service moved through at 100 miles per 24 hour period, so a trip from New York City to Buffalo via the Erie Canal would only have taken about four days. Expansion In 1862, the Erie Canal was widened to 70 feet and deepened to 7 feet (2.1 m). Once the tolls on the canal had paid for its construction in 1882, they were eliminated.

After the opening of the Erie Canal, additional canals were constructed to connect the Erie Canal to Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, and the Finger Lakes. The Erie Canal and its neighbors became known as the New York State Canal System. Now, the canals are primarily used for pleasure boating - bike paths, trails, and recreational marinas line the canal today. The development of the railroad in the 19th century and the automobile in the 20th century sealed the fate of the Erie Canal. Erie Canal opens - Oct 26, 1825 - HISTORY.com Erie Canal opens Publisher A+E Networks The Erie Canal opens, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River. Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York, the driving force behind the project, led the opening ceremonies and rode the canal boat Seneca Chief from Buffalo to New York City. New York legislators became interested in the possibility of building a canal across New York in the first decade of the 19th century. Shipping goods west from Albany was a costly and tedious affair; there was no railroad yet, and to cover the distance from Buffalo to New York City by stagecoach took two weeks.

Governor Clinton enthusiastically took up the proposal to build a canal from Buffalo, on the eastern point of Lake Erie, to Albany, on the upper Hudson, passing through the gap in the mountains in the Mohawk Valley region. By 1817, he had convinced the legislature to authorize the expenditure of $7 million for the construction of a canal that he proposed would be 363 miles long, 40 feet wide, and four feet deep. Work began on “Clinton’s Ditch” in August 1823. Teams of oxen plowed the ground, but for the most part the work was done by Irish diggers who had to rely on primitive tools. They were paid $10 a month, and barrels of whisky were placed along the canal route as encouragement. West of Troy, 83 canal locks were built to accommodate the 500-foot rise in elevation. After more than two years of digging, the 425-mile Erie Canal was opened on October 26, 1825, by Governor Clinton. As Clinton left Buffalo in the Seneca Chief, an ingenious method of communication was used to inform New York City of the historic occasion.

Cannons were arranged along the length of the canal and the river, each within hearing distance of the next cannon. As the governor began his trip, the first cannon was fired, signaling the next to fire. Within 81 minutes, the word was relayed to New York—it was the fastest communication the world had ever known. After arriving in New York on September 4, Clinton ceremoniously emptied a barrel of Lake Erie water in the Atlantic Ocean, consummating the “Marriage of the Waters” of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic. The effect of the canal was immediate and dramatic. Settlers poured into western New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Goods were transported at one-tenth the previous fee in less than half the previous time. Barge loads of farm produce and raw materials traveled east as manufactured goods and supplies flowed west. In nine years, tolls had paid back the cost of construction. Later enlarged and deepened, the canal survived competition from the railroads in the latter part of the 19th century. Today, the Erie Canal is used mostly by pleasure boaters, but it is still capable of accommodating heavy barges. Related Videos What bodies of water does the Erie Canal connect?

| Reference.com What bodies of water does the Erie Canal connect? A: Quick Answer The Erie Canal connects the Hudson River at Albany, N.Y. with Lake Erie at Buffalo, N.Y. The canal was constructed to provide a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean and New York City to the Great Lakes. Full Answer Construction on the Erie Canal began in 1817 and cost over $7 million to build. The Erie Canal was 363 miles in length and was opened on Oct. 26, 1825. In 1825, it took five days to travel the length of the canal, which took two weeks by stagecoach. The Erie Canal allowed New York City to become the largest city and port at the time giving the state more political influence. The Erie Canal What's new on The Erie Canal web site? "Clinton's Big Ditch" The Erie Canal is famous in song and story. Proposed in 1808 and completed in 1825, the canal links the waters of Lake Erie in the west to the Hudson River in the east. An engineering marvel when it was built, some called it the Eighth Wonder of the World.

In order to open the country west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlers and to offer a cheap and safe way to carry produce to a market, the construction of a canal was proposed as early as 1768. However, those early proposals would connect the Hudson River with Lake Ontario near Oswego. It was not until 1808 that the state legislature funded a survey for a canal that would connect to Lake Erie. Finally, on July 4, 1817, ground was broken for the construction of the canal. In those early days, it was often sarcastically referred to as "Clinton's Big Ditch". When finally completed on October 26, 1825, it was the engineering marvel of its day. It included 18 aqueducts to carry the canal over ravines and rivers, and 83 locks, with a rise of 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. It was 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, and floated boats carrying 30 tons of freight.

A ten foot wide towpath was built along the bank of the canal for the horses and/or mules which pulled the boats and their driver, often a young boy (sometimes referred to by later writers as a "hoggee"). In order to keep pace with the growing demands of traffic, the Erie Canal was enlarged between 1836 and 1862. The "Enlarged Erie Canal" was 70 feet wide and 7 feet deep, and could handle boats carrying 240 tons. The number of locks was reduced to 72. Most of the remaining traces of the Old Erie Canal are from the Enlarged Erie era. In 1903, the State again decided to enlarge the canal by the construction of what was termed the "Barge Canal", consisting of the Erie Canal and the three chief branches of the State system -- the Champlain Canal, the Oswego Canal, and the Cayuga and Seneca Canal. The resulting Erie Barge Canal was completed in 1918, and is 12 to 14 feet deep, 120 to 200 feet wide, and 338 miles long, from Waterford to Tonawanda.

36 Locks were built to handle barges carrying up to 3,000 tons of cargo, with lifts of 6 to 40 feet. This is the Erie Canal which today is utilized more often by recreational boats than cargo-carrying barges. Particularly interesting portions of the original "Clinton's Ditch" Canal and the Enlarged Erie Canal include: The locks at Lockport , where the current double 24 1/2 foot high locks are adjacent to one sequence of the original 5 lock pairs. In 2013-2014, two of the original locks were restored to operating condition, with plans to restore the other three in the works. The Fairport Lift Bridge , which celebrated its 100th anniversary in August 2014 and is an engineering curiosity due to the slope and angle of the bridge. The remains of several early canal structures in the Macedon and Palmyra area , including the remains of the Mud Creek Aqueduct and the rebuilt Aldrich Change Bridge, as well as current canal lock E-29. The several mile long stretch between Lyons and Lock Berlin , which includes Enlarged Erie Canal Lock No.

56 and its associated locktender's house and mule barn (now a private residence), current canal Lock E-28A and its associated drydock and Canal Corporation maintenance buildings, the end piers of the Lyons Aqueduct, current canal Lock E-27, traces of the original "Clinton's Ditch" Canal and the Enlarged Erie Canal (some sections watered), and Enlarged Erie Canal Lock No. 54. Old Erie Canal State Historic Park , a 36 mile linear park that preserves the remains of the historic Enlarged Erie Canal from DeWitt to Rome. Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site , including "Clinton's Ditch" Canal Lock No. 20 and a Guard Lock, Enlarged Erie Canal Lock Nos. 28 and 29; several arches of the Schoharie Creek Aqueduct, and current canal Lock E-12. About this Site This web site is devoted to the history of the Erie Canal in general, but focuses to some extent on the area around the City of Rochester. The original canal went right through downtown Rochester and crossed the Genesee River on a major aqueduct.

The first enlargement of the canal replaced the original aqueduct, which leaked, with a new, improved aqueduct which still exists in the guise of the Broad Street Bridge. The last enlargement of the canal, the Erie Barge Canal, bypassed Rochester, and now goes through the Genesee River south of the city. The main sections of this site provide views of the old Erie Canal in three ways: Erie Canal Images -- Old prints, paintings, and postcards Traces of the Old Erie Canal -- Recent photographs of the remains of old Erie Canal sites and structures, primarily those from the Enlarged Erie Canal era (post-1862) Tour the Old Erie Canal -- A journey from Buffalo in the west to Albany in the east by way of a clickable map of the Erie Canal path, and incorporating material from both the Images and Traces sections with additional material. A good introduction to the history of the Erie Canal can be found on the 175th Anniversary Exhibit pages, which originally accompanied an exhibit put together by the Mandeville Gallery of Union College in Schenectady to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal.

More historical information can be found in the materials listed on the Books and Videos page, or by following the Erie Canal Related Links . Historical and recent maps can be found on the Erie Canal Maps page.

Question: To what is Lake Erie connected by the Erie canal?
Answer: Hudson River