Who benefitted the least with the Erie Canal?
When completed on October 26, 1825, DeWitt Clinton (by then Governor of New York) boarded a vessel, the Seneca Chief, in Buffalo and headed to New York City. Who benefited the least with the Erie Canal? The Barge operators on the Ohio river benefited the least with the Erie Canal.
What are facts about the Erie Canal?
Interesting Facts about the Erie Canal
- The original canal included 83 locks and rose 583 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. ...
- There was a towpath along the side of the canal where horses or mules would tow the boat along the canal. ...
- The original canal was 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide.
- The peak traffic year for the canal was 1855.
Who was responsible for the Erie Canal?
The Commission to Explore a Route for a Canal to Lake Erie and Report, known as the Erie Canal Commission, was a body created by the New York State Legislature in 1810 to plan the Erie Canal. In 1817 a Canal Fund led by Commissioners of the Canal Fund was established to oversee the funding of construction of the canal. In 1826 a Canal Board, of which both the planning commissioners and the Canal Fund commissioners were members, was created to take control of the operational canal. The term "Cana
Who was the builder of the Erie Canal?
The praise awarded to Gouverneur Morris must be qualified by the fact that the scheme he conceived was that of a canal with a uniform declination, and without locks, from Lake Erie to the Hudson. Morris communicated his project to Simeon De Witt in 1803, by whom it was made known to James Geddes in 1804.
See more
Who really built the Erie Canal?
Erie CanalOriginal ownerNew York StatePrincipal engineerBenjamin WrightOther engineer(s)Canvass White, Amos EatonConstruction beganJuly 4, 1817 (at Rome, New York)25 more rows
What race built the Erie Canal?
The Erie Canal traversed the ancestral homelands of several groups, including the Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca.
Where was the Erie Canal invented?
Built between 1817 and 1825, the original Erie Canal traversed 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo. It was the longest artificial waterway and the greatest public works project in North America.
Was the Erie Canal the first man made 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.
Can you swim in Erie Canal?
June 23, 1999. Swimming, diving or fishing in the lock chambers or from the lock walls or any other canal structure is prohibited. Hunting on, at or near canal locks or any other canal structure is prohibited.
How deep is the Erie Canal now?
12-23 ft deepFast FactsJUST THE FACTSCanal dimensions, 1918- present Erie Barge Canal12-23 ft deep x 120-200 ft wide; locks 310 ft longCost to build$7,143,789Return on Investment10 yearsNumber of aqueducts to bypass rivers and streams1813 more rows
What was the nickname of the Erie Canal?
Clinton's DitchClinton's Ditch – Nickname for the original Erie Canal, which opened in 1825.
How much did it cost to build the Erie Canal?
$7 million dollarsThe 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.
What did Thomas Jefferson say about the Erie Canal?
Thomas Jefferson is frequently quoted as saying that the proposed plan for the Erie Canal was "little short of madness." Jefferson's comment is essentially hearsay reported by another party; however, rather unusually, Jefferson himself later confirmed that he had "no doubt" that his comments as related secondhand were ...
Is the Erie Canal man made or natural?
man-madeThe man-made waterway, designed by untrained engineers, featured 83 separate locks, two massive stone-and-cement aqueducts to crisscross the Mohawk River, and a final ingenious “flight” of interconnected locks to raise boats over the 70-foot Niagara Escarpment.
How long did the Erie Canal take to build?
8 yearsThe canal was completed in only 8 years at a cost of $7,000,000. When completed on October 26, 1825, DeWitt Clinton (by then Governor of New York) boarded a vessel, the Seneca Chief, in Buffalo and headed to New York City.
Who built the Erie Canal and why?
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.
Who were the Hoggees?
The horse drivers were called "hoggees." The original canal was 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide. The peak traffic year for the canal was 1855. People generally traveled the Erie canal on small boats called "packet boats." These boats were typically 60-80 feet long and around 14 feet wide.
What was the nickname of the Erie Canal?
Clinton's DitchClinton's Ditch – Nickname for the original Erie Canal, which opened in 1825.
Why was the Erie Canal built?
It was built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, originally stretching for 363 miles (584 km) from the Hudson River in Albany to Lake Erie in Buffalo. Completed in 1825, it was the second-longest canal in the world (after the Grand Canal in China) and greatly enhanced the development and economy of the cities of New York, including Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and New York City, as well as the United States. This was in part due to the new ease of transport of salt and other goods, and industries that developed around those.
What is the Erie Canal?
The waterway today referred to as the Erie Canal is quite different from the nineteenth-century Erie Canal. More than half of the original Erie Canal was destroyed or abandoned during construction of the New York State Barge Canal in the early 20th century. The sections of the original route remaining in use were widened significantly, mostly west of Syracuse, with bridges rebuilt and locks replaced. It was called the Barge Canal at the time, but that name fell into disuse with the disappearance of commercial traffic and the increase of recreational travel in the later 20th century.
What river runs through the Appalachian Mountains?
The Mohawk River (a tributary of the Hudson) rises near Lake Ontario and runs in a glacial meltwater channel just north of the Catskill range of the Appalachian Mountains, separating them from the geologically distinct Adirondacks to the north. The Mohawk and Hudson valleys form the only cut across the Appalachians north of Alabama. A navigable canal through the Mohawk Valley would allow an almost complete water route from New York City in the south to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie in the west. Via the canal and these lakes, other Great Lakes, and to a lesser degree, related rivers, a large part of the continent's interior (and many settlements) would be made well connected to the Eastern seaboard.
How were canal boats pulled?
Canal boats up to 3.5 feet (1.1 m) in draft were pulled by horses and mules walking on the towpath. The canal had one towpath, generally on the north side. When canal boats met, the boat with the right of way remained on the towpath side of the canal. The other boat steered toward the berm (or heelpath) side of the canal. The driver (or "hoggee", pronounced HO-gee) of the privileged boat kept his towpath team by the canalside edge of the towpath, while the hoggee of the other boat moved to the outside of the towpath and stopped his team. His towline would be unhitched from the horses, go slack, fall into the water and sink to the bottom, while his boat coasted with its remaining momentum. The privileged boat's team would step over the other boat's towline, with its horses pulling the boat over the sunken towline without stopping. Once clear, the other boat's team would continue on its way.
What did Ellicott realize about the canal?
Ellicott realized that a canal would add value to the land he was selling in the western part of the state. He later became the first canal commissioner. New York legislators became interested in the possibility of building a canal across New York in the first decade of the 19th century.
Why are there copies of canal passenger lists?
Because so many immigrants traveled on the canal, many genealogists have sought copies of canal passenger lists. Apart from the years 1827–1829, canal boat operators were not required to record passenger names or report them to the New York government. Some passenger lists survive today in the New York State Archives, and other sources of traveler information are sometimes available.
When was the Erie Canal enlarged?
It was enlarged between 1834 and 1862. The canal's peak year was 1855, when 33,000 commercial shipments took place. In 1918, the western part of the canal was enlarged to become part of the New York State Barge Canal, which also extended to the Hudson River running parallel to the eastern half of the Erie Canal.
Where was the Erie Canal dug?
Erie Canal, Lockport, New York. Work was undertaken by multiple contractors who agreed to dig small sections of the canal. Each contractor was then responsible for supplying equipment and for hiring, supervising, and paying his own workers. Using horses and manpower, the canal was dug across the state.
What was the success of the Erie Canal?
Its success propelled New York City into a major commercial centre and encouraged canal construction throughout the United States. In addition, construction of the canal served as a training ground for many of the engineers who built other American canals and railroads in the ensuing decades. Erie Canal Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
What was the first canal in the United States to connect western waterways with the Atlantic Ocean?
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. Construction began in 1817 and was completed in 1825. Its success propelled New York City into a major commercial centre ...
What was the first canal in the United States?
Erie Canal, historic waterway of the United States, connecting the Great Lakes with New York City via the Hudson River at Albany. 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. Construction began in 1817 and was completed in 1825. Its success propelled New York City into a major commercial centre and encouraged canal construction throughout the United States. In addition, construction of the canal served as a training ground for many of the engineers who built other American canals and railroads in the ensuing decades.
Why did the Governor of New York pour water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean?
New York Governor DeWitt Clinton pouring water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean to mark the completion of the Erie Canal.
How wide is the Erie 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. The Erie required 83 locks, each made of stone, to move boats up and down the natural elevations.
How many locks were there in the Niagara Escarpment?
On the western side, the challenge was the Niagara Escarpment, a 23-metre (75-foot) rock ridge. 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.
What was the Erie Canal?
The Erie Canal was the beginning of a national transportation system, connecting ports on the Great Lakes with eastern markets. To reach into the Midwest, America needed canals built farther inland. Seeing the benefits of the Erie Canal, Ohio caught canal fever. By 1825, plans to link Lake Erie with the Ohio River were underway.
When was the Ohio & Erie Canal established?
The Ohio & Erie Canal became the spine of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, established in 1974 . In 1996, it also became the backbone of the new Ohio & Erie Canalway.
Why did the Ohio canals help the economy?
The Ohio & Erie Canal opened up Ohio and expanded America’s market economy .
How long did it take to build the Ohio & Erie Canal?
Using design specifications from the Erie Canal, construction on the Ohio & Erie Canal began throughout the state in 1825. It took two years of hand digging to complete the section from Cleveland to Akron, and five more years to finish all the sections.
How long did it take to get from Cleveland to Cincinnati?
By the fall of 1832, the canal promised passage from Cleveland to Cincinnati in 80 hours, a trip that had once taken weeks. The Moody and Thomas Mill in Peninsula. NPS Collection.
Where did the Ohio and Erie Canal go?
The Ohio & Erie Canal traveled through the Cuyahoga Valley on its way to connecting the Ohio River with Lake Erie. Wherever this man-made ditch went, change followed: change for the Cuyahoga Valley, the region, and the nation.
What river would supply the water for the canal?
At the divide’s highest point, today’s Summit County, the canal would need additional sources of water. The Cuyahoga River and the nearby Portage Lakes could supply that water.
Where did the Erie Canal begin?
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 ...
Who helped dig the Erie 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.
What is the Erie Canal used for?
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.
What were the names of the canals that connected the Finger Lakes to the New York State Canal?
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.
What was the goal of the Erie Canal?
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.
How much did it cost to build the Erie Canal?
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.
How long was the Hudson River canal?
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.
Who Built the Erie Canal?
The first barges from Buffalo arrive in New York City via the newly-opened Erie Canal, 1825.
How was the Erie Canal built?
The Erie Canal was built decades before the invention of dynamite to efficiently blast through stubborn rock, or steam-powered earth-movers and excavators to clear mud, rock and rubble. Instead, the thickly forested land was cleared and the 40-foot wide canal was dug and the locks were constructed by the raw manpower of an estimated 50,000 ...
How many locks were there in the Erie Canal?
The man-made waterway, designed by untrained engineers, featured 83 separate locks, two massive stone-and-cement aqueducts to crisscross the Mohawk River, and a final ingenious “flight” of interconnected locks to raise boats over the 70-foot Niagara Escarpment. The Erie Canal was built decades before the invention of dynamite to efficiently blast ...
What was the first major infrastructure project in the history of America?
“The Erie Canal was the first major infrastructure project in the history of America,” says Derrick Pratt, museum educator at the Erie Canal Museum. But the first challenge to building the Erie Canal was that the United States didn’t have a single college of engineering or any native-born engineers.
What was the name of the barge that DeWitt took on the Erie Canal?
Yet in 1825, just eight years after workers broke ground, DeWitt boarded a barge called the Seneca Chief and took a victory cruise along the newly opened Erie Canal, an engineering marvel unlike anything America had ever seen.
What was the name of the swamps that were a result of the canal?
According to an 1820 report from the Canal Commission, three-quarters of these early laborers were “born among us.” But those demographics changed quickly when work on the canal moved westward into a soggy and mosquito-plagued region called the Montezuma swamps. Unable to convince upstate farmers to muck it out in the inhospitable territory, contractors hired teams of Irish immigrants freshly arrived in New York Harbor. Thousands of Irish laborers were sickened or died in the swamps from what was called “Genesee fever,” but which was actually malaria.
How many men worked to dig the Erie Canal?
Wages were 50 cents to a dollar a day and the work in those first years was painfully slow. From 1818 to 1819, around three thousand men and 700 horses labored every day to dig the section of the Erie Canal from Utica to the Seneca River.
Why was the Erie Canal important?
Ultimately, these impacts of the Erie Canal swept us into the age of industrialization and a new kind of economy, as well as sparked future political challenges.
How did the Erie Canal help the United States?
Before the canal’s creation, the Early Industrial Revolution had begun around the 1790s with new technology that increased productivity of agricultural work. Goods started to become manufactured more quickly with the factory system. The Erie Canal was then proposed and created as an efficient transportation lane, lowering the cost of shipping and increasing trade, spreading machinery and manufactured goods , making the United States more economically independent and establishing some of the country’s most prominent cities.
When Was the Erie Canal Built?
Government and business leaders had debated the possibility of building a canal across New York to Lake Erie for decades. DeWitt Clinton was a state senator for New York when he first began promoting the idea in 1811. He later served as mayor of New York City, and then as governor of the state.
How Long Did It Take to Build the Erie Canal?
Construction on the Erie Canal started in 1817 and ended in 1825. Easier said than done, of course. The engineers who planned the canal had almost no formal training, and the laborers who did the work—approximately 50,000 of them—performed almost all of it by hand for 80 cents a day, which translates into a little under $17 today.
How Did the Erie Canal Change the World?
To understand the significance of the Erie Canal, consider these 2 facts: first, the east end of the canal connected to the Hudson River, which runs south to New York City; and second, the west end of the canal connected to Lake Erie, with coastlines touching western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Canada.
Is the Erie Canal Still in Use Today?
With construction of the railroads, use of the canal slowly declined. It was retired as a commercial waterway in 1959 when the St. Lawrence Seaway was built. Since then, it has been mainly a tourist attraction and recreational hotspot. In 2000, the United States Congress established the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor as a national park.
Did Your Ancestors Travel on the Erie Canal?
If any of your ancestors immigrated to the United States between 1820 and 1850, there’s a good chance they travelled on the Erie Canal during its heyday—especially if they settled in places like Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, or Wisconsin.
Overview
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing the costs of transporting people and goods across the Appalachians. In effect, the canal accelerated the settlement of the Great Lakes region, the westward expansion of the United States, and the economic ascendency of New York State. It …
Ambiguity in name
The waterway today referred to as the Erie Canal is quite different from the nineteenth-century Erie Canal. More than half of the original Erie Canal was destroyed or abandoned during construction of the New York State Barge Canal in the early 20th century. The sections of the original route remaining in use were widened significantly, mostly west of Syracuse, with bridges rebuilt and locks replaced. It was called the Barge Canal at the time, but that name fell into disus…
Background
Prior to the advent of railroads, water transport was the most cost-effective way to ship bulk goods. A mule can only carry about 250 pounds (110 kg), but can draw a barge weighing as much as 60,000 pounds (27,000 kg) along a towpath. In total, a canal could cut transport costs by about 95 percent.
In the early years of the United States, transportation of goods between the coastal ports and th…
Proposals and logistics
The idea of a canal to tie the East Coast to the new western settlements was discussed as early as 1724: New York provincial official Cadwallader Colden made a passing reference (in a report on fur trading) to improving the natural waterways of western New York.
Gouverneur Morris and Elkanah Watson were early proponents of a canal along the Mohawk River. Their efforts led to the creation of the "Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Companies…
Construction
The men who planned and oversaw construction were novices as surveyors and as engineers. There were no civil engineers in the United States. James Geddes and Benjamin Wright, who laid out the route, were judges whose experience in surveying was in settling boundary disputes. Geddes had only used a surveying instrument for a few hours before his work on the Canal. Canvass White was a 27-year-old amateur engineer who persuaded Clinton to let him go to Britain at his own ex…
Route
The canal began on the west side of the Hudson River at Albany, and ran north to Watervliet, where the Champlain Canal branched off. At Cohoes, it climbed the escarpment on the west side of the Hudson River—16 locks rising 140 feet (43 m)—and then turned west along the south shore of the Mohawk River, crossing to the north side at Crescent and again to the south at Rexford. The canal continued west near the south shore of the Mohawk River all the way to Rome, where the Moha…
Enlargements and improvements
Problems developed but were quickly solved. Leaks developed along the entire length of the canal, but these were sealed using cement that hardened underwater (hydraulic cement). Erosion on the clay bottom proved to be a problem and the speed was limited to 4 mph (6.4 km/h).
The original design planned for an annual tonnage of 1.5 million tons (1.36 mil…
Competition
As the canal brought travelers to New York City, it took business away from other ports such as Philadelphia and Baltimore. Those cities and their states started projects to compete with the Erie Canal. In Pennsylvania, the Main Line of Public Works was a combined canal and railroad running west from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh on the Ohio River, opened in 1834. In Maryland, the Ba…
The Route
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 Monroefound the idea unconstitutional and vetoed it. Therefore, the New York State legislature took the matter into its own hands and approved state …
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, whic…
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 coul…
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 …