This was in part due to the new ease of transport of salt and other goods, and industries that developed around those. The canal was first proposed in the 1780s, then re-proposed in 1807.
In 1800, it typically took 2½ weeks to travel overland from New York to Cleveland, Ohio, () and 4 weeks to Detroit (). The principal exportable product of the Ohio Valley was grain, which was a high-volume, low-priced commodity, bolstered by supplies from the coast.
Such a canal would be expensive to build even with modern technology; in 1800, the expense was barely imaginable.
This was in part due to the new ease of transport of salt and other goods, and industries that developed around those. The canal was first proposed in the 1780s, then re-proposed in 1807.
A survey was authorized, funded, and executed in 1808.
Proponents of the project gradually wore down opponents; its construction began in 1817, and it opened on October 26, 1825.
In 1817, though, Clinton received approval from the legislature for $7 million for construction. The original canal was long, from Albany on the Hudson to Buffalo on Lake Erie.
Yet these men "carried the Erie Canal up the Niagara escarpment at Lockport, maneuvered it onto a towering embankment to cross over Irondequoit Creek, spanned the Genesee River on an awesome aqueduct, and carved a route for it out of the solid rock between Little Falls and Schenectady—and all of those venturesome designs worked precisely as planned". Construction began on July 4, 1817, at Rome, New York.
Existing remains of the 1825 canal abandoned during the Enlargement are officially referred to today as "Clinton's Ditch" (which was also the popular nickname for the entire Erie Canal project during its original 1817–1825 construction). Additional feeder canals soon extended the Erie Canal into a system.
The first , from Rome to Utica, opened in 1819.
Work continued on the downhill side towards the Hudson, and the crews worked on the section across the swampland when it froze in winter. The middle section from Utica to Salina (Syracuse) was completed in 1820, and traffic on that section started up immediately.
The canal system thus gave New York a competitive advantage, helped New York City develop as an international trade center, and allowed Buffalo to grow from just 200 settlers in 1820 to more than 18,000 people by 1840.
In 1823 construction reached the Niagara Escarpment, necessitating the building of five locks along a corridor to carry the canal over the escarpment.
Expansion to the east and west proceeded simultaneously, and the whole eastern section, from Brockport to Albany, opened on September 10, 1823, to great fanfare.
The Champlain Canal, a separate but connected north-south route from Watervliet on the Hudson to Lake Champlain, opened on the same date. In 1824, before the canal was completed, a detailed Pocket Guide for the Tourist and Traveler, Along the Line of the Canals, and the Interior Commerce of the State of New York, was published for the benefit of travelers and land speculators. After Montezuma Marsh, the next difficulties were crossing Irondequoit Creek and the Genesee River near Rochester.
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.
Proponents of the project gradually wore down opponents; its construction began in 1817, and it opened on October 26, 1825.
Buffalo won over Black Rock, and grew into a large city, eventually encompassing its former rival. The entire canal was officially completed on October 26, 1825.
The canal was straightened and slightly re-routed in some stretches, resulting in the abandonment of short segments of the original 1825 canal.
Existing remains of the 1825 canal abandoned during the Enlargement are officially referred to today as "Clinton's Ditch" (which was also the popular nickname for the entire Erie Canal project during its original 1817–1825 construction). Additional feeder canals soon extended the Erie Canal into a system.
In 1825 more than 40,000 passengers took advantage of the convenience and beauty of canal travel.
Apart from the years 1827–1829, canal boat operators were not required to record passenger names or report them to the government, which, in this case, was the state of New York.
By 1828, import duties collected at the New York Customs House supported federal government operations and provided funds for all the expenses in Washington except the interest on the national debt.
From 1833 to 1877, the short Crooked Lake Canal connected Keuka Lake and Seneca Lake.
The Chemung Canal connected the south end of Seneca Lake to Elmira in 1833, and was an important route for Pennsylvania coal and timber into the canal system.
It was enlarged between 1834 and 1862.
An ambitious program to improve the canal began in 1834.
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.
The Chenango Canal in 1836 connected the Erie Canal at Utica to Binghamton and caused a business boom in the Chenango River valley.
The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad opened in 1837, providing a bypass to the slowest part of the canal between Albany and Schenectady.
Additionally, New York State's initial loan for the original canal had been paid by 1837.
The canal system thus gave New York a competitive advantage, helped New York City develop as an international trade center, and allowed Buffalo to grow from just 200 settlers in 1820 to more than 18,000 people by 1840.
Camillus Erie Canal Park preserves a stretch and has restored Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct, built in 1841 as part of the First Enlargement of the canal.
Other railroads were soon chartered and built to continue the line west to Buffalo, and in 1842 a continuous line (which later became the New York Central Railroad and its Auburn Road in 1853) was open the whole way to Buffalo.
However, as late as 1852, the canal carried thirteen times more freight tonnage than all the railroads in New York State combined; it continued to compete well with the railroads through 1902, when tolls were abolished. During Rockefeller's consolidations of the late 1860s and early 1870s, he used the canal as a cheaper form of transportation – in the summer months when it was not frozen – to get his refined oil from Cleveland to New York City.
In Maryland, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran west to Wheeling, West Virginia, then a part of Virginia, also on the Ohio River, and was completed in 1853. Other competition was more direct.
Other railroads were soon chartered and built to continue the line west to Buffalo, and in 1842 a continuous line (which later became the New York Central Railroad and its Auburn Road in 1853) was open the whole way to Buffalo.
Trade between the United States and Canada also increased as a result of the repeal and a reciprocity (free-trade) agreement signed in 1854.
The canal's peak year was 1855, when 33,000 commercial shipments took place.
Flood damage to the canal and its facilities was estimated as at least $15 million. There were some 42 commercial shipments on the canal in 2008, compared to 15 such shipments in 2007 and more than 33,000 shipments in 1855, the canal's peak year.
Allen was written in 1905 to memorialize the canal's early heyday, when barges were pulled by mules rather than engines. ==Sunday closing debate== The New York State Legislature debated closing the locks of the Erie Canal on Sundays, when they convened in 1858.
However, as late as 1852, the canal carried thirteen times more freight tonnage than all the railroads in New York State combined; it continued to compete well with the railroads through 1902, when tolls were abolished. During Rockefeller's consolidations of the late 1860s and early 1870s, he used the canal as a cheaper form of transportation – in the summer months when it was not frozen – to get his refined oil from Cleveland to New York City.
It was enlarged between 1834 and 1862.
The First Enlargement was completed in 1862, with further minor enlargements in later decades. Today, the reconfiguration of the canal created during the First Enlargement is commonly referred to as the "Improved Erie Canal" or the "Old Erie Canal", to distinguish it from the canal's modern-day course.
However, as late as 1852, the canal carried thirteen times more freight tonnage than all the railroads in New York State combined; it continued to compete well with the railroads through 1902, when tolls were abolished. During Rockefeller's consolidations of the late 1860s and early 1870s, he used the canal as a cheaper form of transportation – in the summer months when it was not frozen – to get his refined oil from Cleveland to New York City.
From 1833 to 1877, the short Crooked Lake Canal connected Keuka Lake and Seneca Lake.
In the winter months his only options were the three trunk lines: the Erie Railroad, the New York Central Railroad, or the Pennsylvania Railroad. The New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway was completed in 1884, as a route running closely parallel to both the canal and the New York Central Railroad.
However, as late as 1852, the canal carried thirteen times more freight tonnage than all the railroads in New York State combined; it continued to compete well with the railroads through 1902, when tolls were abolished. During Rockefeller's consolidations of the late 1860s and early 1870s, he used the canal as a cheaper form of transportation – in the summer months when it was not frozen – to get his refined oil from Cleveland to New York City.
Allen was written in 1905 to memorialize the canal's early heyday, when barges were pulled by mules rather than engines. ==Sunday closing debate== The New York State Legislature debated closing the locks of the Erie Canal on Sundays, when they convened in 1858.
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. In 2000, Congress designated the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor to recognize the national significance of the canal system as the most successful and influential human-built waterway and one of the most important works of civil engineering and construction in North America.
Jeremiah and Bacheller argued, successfully, that just as it was unthinkable to halt oceangoing navigation on Sunday, so it was with the canal. ==20th century== In 1918, the Canal was replaced by the larger New York State Barge Canal.
Use of the canal system has an estimated total economic impact of $6.2 billion annually. In 2017, the New York State Canal Corporation was transferred from the New York State Thruway to the New York Power Authority. ==Old Erie Canal== Sections of the old Erie Canal not used after 1918 are owned by New York State, or have been ceded to or purchased by counties or municipalities.
The Black River Canal connected the Black River to the Erie Canal at Rome and remained in operation until the 1920s.
In 1960 the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, a section of the canal in Montgomery County, was one of the first sites recognized as a National Historic Landmark. Some municipalities have preserved sections as town or county canal parks, or have plans to do so.
While part of the Thruway, the canal system was operated using money generated by Thruway tolls. ==21st century== Since the 1990s, the canal system has been used primarily by recreational traffic, although a small but growing amount of cargo traffic still uses it. Today, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor covers of navigable water from Lake Champlain to the Capital Region and west to Buffalo.
The canal has been mainly used by recreational watercraft since the retirement of the commercial ship Day Peckinpaugh in 1994, although the canal saw a recovery in commercial traffic in 2008. ==Ambiguity in name== The waterway today referred to as the Erie Canal is quite different from the nineteenth-century Erie Canal.
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. In 2000, Congress designated the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor to recognize the national significance of the canal system as the most successful and influential human-built waterway and one of the most important works of civil engineering and construction in North America.
The cruise goes through the history of the canal and also takes passengers through Lock 18. In 2004, the administration of New York Governor George Pataki was criticized when officials of New York State Canal Corporation attempted to sell private development rights to large stretches of the Old Erie Canal to a single developer for $30,000, far less than the land was worth on the open market.
In 2006 recreational boating fees were eliminated to attract more visitors. Travel on the canal's middle section (particularly in the Mohawk Valley) was severely hampered by flooding in late June and early July 2006.
Flood damage to the canal and its facilities was estimated as at least $15 million. There were some 42 commercial shipments on the canal in 2008, compared to 15 such shipments in 2007 and more than 33,000 shipments in 1855, the canal's peak year.
The canal has been mainly used by recreational watercraft since the retirement of the commercial ship Day Peckinpaugh in 1994, although the canal saw a recovery in commercial traffic in 2008. ==Ambiguity in name== The waterway today referred to as the Erie Canal is quite different from the nineteenth-century Erie Canal.
With Buffalo's re-excavation of the Commercial Slip, completed in 2008, the Canal's original terminus is now re-watered and again accessible by boats.
Flood damage to the canal and its facilities was estimated as at least $15 million. There were some 42 commercial shipments on the canal in 2008, compared to 15 such shipments in 2007 and more than 33,000 shipments in 1855, the canal's peak year.
In 2012, the New York State Canal System (which consists of the Erie Canal and a few smaller canals) was used to ship 42,000 tons of cargo. {| |- | | | |} Aside from transportation, numerous businesses, farms, factories and communities alongside its banks still utilize the canal's waters for other purposes such as irrigation for farmland, hydroelectricity, research, industry, and even drinking.
Use of the canal system has an estimated total economic impact of $6.2 billion annually. In 2017, the New York State Canal Corporation was transferred from the New York State Thruway to the New York Power Authority. ==Old Erie Canal== Sections of the old Erie Canal not used after 1918 are owned by New York State, or have been ceded to or purchased by counties or municipalities.
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