I am proud to say that I was raised on this very canal system. I was born in Waterloo, NY, and still live here. There's not a day that goes by where I get a chance to drive alongside. Just a constant reminder of my youth that brings a smile.
One summer we rented a Canal Boat and went up and down the Erie Canal. Never piloted a boat before in my life. But after a 30 minute introduction we were off!
yeah, it's amazing how far you can go on the canal system - they have four offshoots one goes down to the two large Finger Lakes, Cayuga and Seneca. People I know who live on the canal in Pittsford said the big boats pass by in the fall to take their boats to the Finger Lakes for the winter storage , in the summer the boats anchor on the lakes and swim and recreate- they have many marinas - the other offshoot is at Albany north to Lake Champlain up the St Lawrence Seaway and to Montreal. You can boat for miles on the canal system today.
Definitely 20th century. "After an idle year in 1916, the boats made a last mule-drawn trip to Albany with lumber. But ice caught them on the way back, and they were left to winter at Frankfort, near Utica." Quoted from the following source: buffalonews.com/1990/06/03/canal-boatman-remembers-the-long-haul-from-albany-to-buffalo-childhood-on-old-erie-was-an-adventure/ It seems like the the horse ... mule ... power survived well past the first American Industrial Revolution and just past the start of the first World War.
A few years ago, I had the pleasure to visit Geneva New York. On the way, it was so cool to see the Erie Canal from the interstate. So much history and accomplishment.
If you happen to come back to Fort Hunter, let us know. We'll open up the Visitor Center and give you a tour of the canal history here at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site.
I live in Rochester and walk the canal all the time, have rode a canal boat multiple times, and even made a model of a Erie canal packet boat. sometimes when i am walking the canal and just want to go back to 1825 and live in a cabin in the wilderness on the canal and enjoy that breeze and ride the canal on a little packet boat. It must have been something.
the bicycle path / tow path from Lockport to Newark is one of the best bicycle paths in the world, right along the canal the entire way - no cars, no noise for over 100 miles East from Newark to Albany the "canal path " is actually on roads most of the way
3:55 With all due respect to the mayor of Rochester - this city was not built on the canal nor did its waterway power the flour mills which made it prosperous. The city was built on the Genesee Falls on the Genesee River several miles north of the canal. The canal helped transport flour through canal tributaries that were dug to the downtown area and it did increase the population of the region but it was not the foundation of Rochester.
I was born in Little Falls, the Highest Lift lock, Lock 17, on the Canal. Later grew up in Rochester, and lived also in Albion & Brockport all along the canal. Nice historical piece.
Growing up here in Buffalo, NY and having the Erie Canal in my backyard, there are so many things I didn't know about, until this video. I'm 67 y/o and this vid has inspired me, to due a bit, more, maybe alot more, research on the canal. In the past I've taken my 21 footer I/O for a trip to see how far my friends and I would go before being bored. Rochester was it, too slow for 22 y/olds. But the scenery was pretty cool. Medina area was surprising and believe it or not there were places we could replenish our beer supply en route. Couldn't do that nowadays. Oh well.
Fun fact: 80 percent of all the people who live in upstate New York, live within 25 miles of the Erie Canal. Also, once it proved successful, a bunch of people built smaller "feeder" canals to allow goods and passengers to reach more places, up in northern New York State. Until the canal, New York was just another seaport on the East Coast of the young United States, competing for shipping with other towns -- especially Boston. The canal allowed ships to bring cargo bound for every town on the shores of the Great Lakes, and take back to Europe the bulk goods and other cargoes from the entire Upper Midwest. Once the workers had completed the Erie Canal -- and then widened it and deepened it -- New York became the primary seaport for the entire United States. Nothing else even came close, no place else could even begin to compete. The Erie Canal made New York City the premiere center of American culture (and no, I don't care whether or not you like it -- facts are facts), commerce, business and finance, and one of the four centers (with Los Angeles, London and Paris -- although Berlin is rising fast) of modern Western Civilization. That said, as much as I enjoyed this video, they might have mentioned that the canal isn't in good repair, the entire length, any longer. Some parts of it were incorporated into a modern canal, which bypassed some of the older parts. Those bypassed sections are in pretty poor repair, in spots, and have become empty ditches with no water.
There was a canal that at one point connected Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and at the time was considered a world wonder of engineering. The canal featured a railroad to move boats up and down the Appalachian mountains. Unfortunately not much remains of it as the railroad boom occurred around the same time it opened.
Mom’s ancestors lived along the canal in North Tonawanda (near the Buffalo end), and happened to grow aspidistra plants in their back yard near the canal. Cuttings from those hardy plants have been handed down through the generations, and I have one in a big clay pot next to me as I type this.
WSJ did an article last year how one can now take a boat in a loop from NYC up the Hudson to the Erie to Lake Michigan to the Illinois Michigan Canal to the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic and back up to NYC
The Erie Canal is indeed why New York City became the largest city in USA for commerce and stock market capitalization, eclipsing Philadelphia and Boston. Also, the synergy of these NY canals made several cities and towns of upstate New York robust for trade and an impressive beacon of the world in research and development both in industries and fine universities. This is what was meant by the Empire State and a major engine to American economic strength and prowess. As of today however, it is hopeful but difficult for upstate NY to rebuild commerce from losses due to increased competition and higher expenses of business.
Yeah, I grew up in Buffalo and Rochester, with relatives in Syracuse. Those cities are struggling to re-invent themselves, and have less than half their peak populations in 1950 +/-
may be new york state is mean and nasty to business. may be its very high taxes. how lojmg has new york state been ruled by one party. new yorks dont learn from hostory. they move down to red states and still want to do the same failed ideas i hope up state new york can get it to geter
Several years ago, while spending a few days at Niagara Falls, we took a side trip to Lockport and toured a portion of the canal. For me it was an eye-opener. I'd known about the canal since grammar school, but the engineering achievement of canal and its impact on our nation had, until that moment, been lost on me.
John Fortunato it totally changed the transportation cost between east coast and Great Lakes. It allowed millions of tons of freight to be moved with zero friction. Created the great cities like Chicago, Detroit.
@@777jones only for 4 years in 1829 the Welland Canal connected Lake Erie to Lake Ontario thru Canada, allowing ships to come up the St Lawrence River past Lake Ontario to the rest of the great lakes, but it was a LONG away around from NY City
In the winter they would drain the canal, at least from bushnell basin to pittsford,I only lived less than a mile away, so we would skate to high school. Yeah, Sutherland.
You can travel on a boat from Buffalo to Florida and only be in the ocean for 38 miles. The canal to the ocean then the inter coastal water way. Living in the Finger Lakes region the Wife and I ride our Motorcycles to diff locks all over the state. We also took a boat tour out of Herkimer in 2017. The tour guide gives a lot of history on the canal while on the tour. Always been infatuated with the Erie Canal.
Ok, in NY state, they frequently have signs to tune to such-and-such radio frequency for traffic information. I have long thought each segment of the canal should have an audio recording of the history of the Erie canal broadcasted 24/7 for travelers on the New York State thruway to be entertained and educated. I'm sure local businesses would advertise and it would be self funded, if not profitable.
grew up swimming in the canal in Utica NY ,i read someone on here saying there is the old canal and the new csnal and that is 100% true the old canal used to run right through downtown Utica but they filled it in an moved it parallel to the mohawk river which also runs through utica ,and they call the new canal the "barge canal" not the erie canal
We should improve and expand the USA inland waterways and create new connections. For example, a new canal could be built to connect Lake Superior to the Mississippi River via the Saint Croix River. Reconstructing and expanding the old Ohio and Erie Canal could connect Lake Erie to the Ohio River to allow more traffic than it ever had in the past. Height limits from bridges could be raised or eliminated along all the waterways by adding lift bridges to allow taller ships to navigate more areas. Canals could be widened and deepened. Locks could be upgraded for faster and easier travel. Navigation and access improvements could improve travel times and reduce costs to make transport along the waterways more attractive again.
The trouble is that to make that truly economical, all of those old canals would have to not only be rebuilt, but rebuilt to the size of modern container ships so that economies of scale could overpower the speed advantage of rail.
This kind of infrastructure gave the north a HUGE advantage against the south in the Civil War. The south didn't have transportation infrastructure that was anything close to this.
In a side note Clinton planned another canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River at Cincinnati he went so far as to acquire land on Lake Erie and have his partner a surveyor named Ezekiel Haines lay out a town but with the coming of the railroad it now being impractical and no investors could be found.The town that eventually had people settle there was named Port Clinton,Ohio either in his honor or because he was a politician by himself for his vanity.
With respect to Mayor Warren, Rochester was already a boomtown before the canal ran through it. Our foundation, and reason for growth and success, was and continues to be the Genesee River.
Yes, there is the Genesee, but there is no doubt that without the Erie Canal, transport in Upstate NY let alone to New York City would have been inefficient.
@@chuckbfloYou stand corrected. No, in fact both NYC and NY state governments did not fully finance nor construct nor run the Erie Canal. The vast majority of the funding was indeed from private bond sales through PRIVATE SECTOR investment; the Erie Canal would never have happened strictly as a government funded effort. The point is indeed valid that government, especially today, is often overwhelmed with insufficient and negligent planning, extensive delay, finished over budget, and often laden in corruption. The Big Dig in Boston is a classic example of that sort of government bureaucracy. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, finished and financed with private bonds in 1963 at over 20 miles with 2 longer tunnels and 4 manmade islands over deeper bay water, was indeed finished under budget and on time despite a destructive storm delaying progress. The CBBT, just like the Erie Canal, would not have been built strictly from only government funding, research, and construction.
@@johnkeller9738 But, that doesn't fit the socialist/statist/authoritarian narrative that government has all the answers. At its heart, their ideology is so insulting: either the public is too stupid OR too powerless to possess the FREEDOM to make their own decisions. US liberals only wish to RESTRICT FREEDOM (except for a relatively few social issues). They fully believe that these decisions should be turned over entirely to the God called "government."
Jttv Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas E Dewey. Living my whole life in NY I can remember plenty. Drive around any fairly large city an there is some road or landmark name after all.
Another cool canal is the D&H canal which ran from the Hudson River to the Delaware River. I use to truck down route 52 between Kingston ny to port jervis ny all the time. There are several historic markers along route 52 were you can pull off and check it out.
Last summer I paddled from south buffalo to brockport. Two thirds of it was on the canal, it was awesome. Camped on the towpath, a wide water, and someone’s backyard. This year I’m continuing by taking my god son from brockport to Rochester on one trip and another one going east from Rochester.
Living here in the Albany, New York area the canal is all around me going up through the Mohawk River area, what a very interesting and amazing engineering feat way back then
A nice summary of history and the importance of the Erie Canal. Far Better than what I was taught in school. One last note, Seneca Falls was the model for Bedford Falls in It's a Wonderful Life.
Quite some years ago I tagged along with a friend taking his family's boat from Toledo to New Paltz. Traversing the Canal was an unforgettable experience. A beautiful experience, except for an unexpected squall on one of the lakes. That was scary. So glad I took the time to do it, though.
2:50 - "Completed in just eight years." California has had a fully staffed "Department of High-Speed Rail" since 1995 and not one foot of track has been laid. People are retiring from the department, with full pensions, never producing one thing the Department was set up to do. Remember this when you look forward to socialized medicine or anything the government says it will provide for you.
That California story is sickening. On the other hand not much is mentioned about the brutal hard work that went on that built up the U.S. through getting paid pennies or even slavery.
It produced cushy government jobs and probably got a career boost for the person who started it. So it produced exactly everything it was set up to do.
The high speed rail project is a lot more complicated and has thus far yielded one new bridge. Our wonderful healthcare system in the U.S. allows for 45,000 deaths per year.
guess you never heard of canalside in Buffalo where the original walls from the erie canal were un earthed about 10yrs ago,so yes it did come out in Bufallo dip stick
I grew up in MN was fascinated with the song. After 40 years in CT I finally drove up to see the canal July 3rd. Never saw a hint that the 4th 2as it's 200th Birthday! Had a wonderful tour. This video adds much more! THANKS!
Would also add a great job by NY State for keeping it up, we have traveled by boat through it and Champlain canal and both were very well maintained and the lock tenders were exceptionally nice and helpful.
If you can get an electric barge that takes a shipping container (same load as a semi), and supercharges at each lock, you could get some business going. Like Greyhound Buses the driver would go up the canal, have lunch while it recharges; then take an identical boat back down to home and pass it on. Like a conveyor belt but not on the road..
The first section was basically just five miles long, it avoided the rapids on the Mohawk river, and was so profitable that all the local businesses got on board to support further expansion. This is not an example of American ingenuity, there were hundreds of canals already built in England at the time. The Chesapeake canal had already been built and it's founders would go on to build America's first railroad. Upstate New York at the time was an unspoiled wilderness, and most people just thought going west by water was just dumb.
there are always people with "vision". more recent examples are the interstate highway system, the electric grid, the cellular network, the internet. even right now there are groups out there trying to implement things like the hyperloop and space tourism and colonizing mars (a dumb idea, but one requiring vision). and all of those are just examples of vision from within the same sort of infrastructure space that spawned the canal.
Wish the canal was used more, it would take some heavy lifting and alleviate the roads; but would move too slowly now for this century. But an enviable piece of construction under budget.
terryfriend16 it can still make economic sense for bulky relatively low cost cargo like aggregate, coal etc. One barge can carry the same as a dozen trucks or more, using less fuel.
On the playground where I went to grade school in Evansville, indiana there was a sign that said "The terminus of the old Wabash and Erie Canal". This, the longest leg of the Erie Canal was 460 miles long from Toledo , Ohio to Evansville, Indiana on the Ohio River. People up north may not be aware of this large portion of the Erie Canal.
NY's Erie Canal is a separate enterprise than the Ohio and Erie or the Miami and Erie Canals of Ohio. The commonality besides being a method of transport is that their route included a terminus at Lake Erie. They may have all operated as a transportation way in tandem, but NY's Canal was and is today, entirely its own beast.
I think of my great uncle Frank who came from Ireland, brought the rest of his family (2 brothers and two sisters and his mother) from County Cork to upstate NY to build the Canal and a bunch or Roads in syracuse, Liverpool and surrounding areas including Wetzele road which my grandparents 56 acre farm boardered. Occasionally, my brother, father and grandfather fished in a still navigable part of the Canal in the early 60's. Fishing was good
I've been watching "Travel by Narrowboat" on Amazon Prime, and am now totally enamored by the romance of it all. If it's still possible to rent, and self pilot, a canal boat on the Erie Canal, I believe I just found next year's vacation.
It is. Really any boat will work, with obvious size limitations. There has been a decent resurgence of business along the canal to cater to the tourists. Western & Central NY are great places to visit in the summer months. You will also want to check out the finger lakes, the vineyards alone are worth the trip, which have been recently voted by usa today as best wine region in the US. Also your trip would not be complete without a visit to Letchworth State Park, called the Grand Canyon of the east, and watkins Glenn State Park, which are both a day trip from the canal.
@@Stonecrow25 Thanks for the reply and information! Funny you should mention Letchworth, as I vacationed there two summers as a kid back in the mid-70's. The Genessee River Gorge is truly a sight. My sister lives in Liverpool (Syracuse), and has also mentioned that the finger lakes are a must see. Upstate NY has some of the most beautiful country in the US. No offense to NYC, as it has a beauty of its own, but imo, it's a shame folks relate to it, instead of the countryside, when NY is mentioned in conversation.
A recurring problem in early US development was that of transportation between the coastal ports and the interior. Close to the seacoast, rivers often provided adequate waterways, but the Appalachian Mountains, 400 miles inland, running over 1,500 miles long as a barrier range with just five places where mule trains or wagon roads could be routed presented a great challenge. 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, hence, that was the only place a canal could be built.
A sad number of canals have been paved over. New Jersey's Delaware and Raritan(guess which rivers it connects ;) ) has highways built on top of 2 or 3 segments, and only one set of locks survive and they're cutoff from the majority of it by highway 18.
I lived in Albany for many years; rode that path on bicycle for many times. Saw the traffic through the locks, weren't prolific at that time in 1999, but there were still boats going through.
I lived/ worked there in Albany also around that same time. I also explored the paths alongside the canal trying to find traces of horses were mules.😆 Seriously though it's quite historic. I've been to many of the locks and was fascinated by them considering how old they were. Kind of sad looking at all the old factories in Albany along the Hudson River and Troy now dilapidated.
Grew up in the City of Tonawanda, now the Western Terminus of the NY State Barge Canal (the final iteration and improvement to the original canal), my elementary school on the bank is now apartments- just one of the many towns along the canal with declining populations and having to reinvent themselves. But surrounding all the nostalgia, and briefly touched on in the story, are the many injustices American migration to Western NY wrought to the Native Americans who were removed to reservations. The injustices continued after the canal was established, at least in my "sundowner town" where African-Americans were not welcome after dusk (what I thought was a quaint whistle from the Water Department, loud enough to hear across town every night at 9pm and a signal to kids to go home in the pre-cell phone days, was in fact a relic from the canal days to tell African-Americans working on canal boats to leave town). Discrimination was, and is, not just a thing in the South.
I lived in Waterville in the late 40s. There was a very wide dry ditch there full of wildflowers and arrowheads. They said it was part of the Erie Canal that was never used because the times and needs changed. The part that it was built to connect with was never completed. They eventually filled it in and laid the Anthony Wayne Trail over it.
Why don't these stories include the rest of the Erie canal? I live in Southwest Ohio, about 600 feet from the Erie canal, and we have locks here, and an original boat that was actually used on the canal for transport. Surplus stone blocks from the locks construction was found on my property a few years ago.
Why don't people realize way before the Erie Canal was a different canal the English from England brought all the things that the Erie Canal did it was called the Dundee canal Northern New Jersey across from New York or what they called New Amsterdam even a place called Dey mansion Washington's retreat and home base during the Revolutionary War
Help me somebody! The pictures all seem to show the animals pulling the barge from one side of the canal. But wouldn't that pull the barge against the bank as well as down the canal? I have this mental picture of those poor animals dragging the barge against the bank for the whole trip.
Dennis - They had couple of employees on the boat. There was always someone to steer. The problems that did occur was when two boats approached from each direction. Certain rules applied and there was a specific method to get the two boats around each other.
I am proud to say that I was raised on this very canal system. I was born in Waterloo, NY, and still live here. There's not a day that goes by where I get a chance to drive alongside. Just a constant reminder of my youth that brings a smile.
My family came over from Ireland to dig this canal.
Rob Lowery a lot of Irish died if Ian not mistaken
Congratulations. My family might have done the same. Williamsport, Pa. Have to research. Do you know that for a fact or is it family legend ?
I’m 25% Irish 65% British and whatever else
thats awesome, the Canal is 200yrs old
These canals were here long before that.
This is my part of the canal! The boat in the background and the dock too! Still here in 2022
One summer we rented a Canal Boat and went up and down the Erie Canal. Never piloted a boat before in my life. But after a 30 minute introduction we were off!
yeah, it's amazing how far you can go on the canal system - they have four offshoots one goes down to the two large Finger Lakes, Cayuga and Seneca. People I know who live on the canal in Pittsford said the big boats pass by in the fall to take their boats to the Finger Lakes for the winter storage , in the summer the boats anchor on the lakes and swim and recreate- they have many marinas - the other offshoot is at Albany north to Lake Champlain up the St Lawrence Seaway and to Montreal. You can boat for miles on the canal system today.
Do you have a family member named Robert? Went to Fairport?
Also, the Oswego river through Phoenix, Fulton and Oswego into Lake Ontario.
thats so cool, i hope you enjoyed the ride, thank you for your support
for my new channel. you subscribing to a beginners channel is appreciated
I grew up in Lockport and know the locks well. When my grandfather was young he ran away one summer and was a mule runner on the canal
Any idea what decade that would have been? I didn't think mules were used after the 19th century.
Definitely 20th century. "After an idle year in 1916, the boats made a last mule-drawn trip to Albany with lumber. But ice caught them on the way back, and they were left to winter at Frankfort, near Utica."
Quoted from the following source: buffalonews.com/1990/06/03/canal-boatman-remembers-the-long-haul-from-albany-to-buffalo-childhood-on-old-erie-was-an-adventure/
It seems like the the horse ... mule ... power survived well past the first American Industrial Revolution and just past the start of the first World War.
ML R before they widened it in the early 20th, it couldn’t take much more than a mule barge. It was only 4ft deep originally.
Emily Ockenfels wow cool
Emily Ockenfels my mom was born a d grew up in Lockport as well
A few years ago, I had the pleasure to visit Geneva New York. On the way, it was so cool to see the Erie Canal from the interstate. So much history and accomplishment.
I grew up in Fort Hunter NY, the Erie Canal was right next to my house, never learned anything about the history of it so this is great
If you happen to come back to Fort Hunter, let us know. We'll open up the Visitor Center and give you a tour of the canal history here at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site.
Spent a lot of time fishing the Canal near chittenango
We sang this song many many times in Grade School. Enjoyed this story...
I live in Rochester and walk the canal all the time, have rode a canal boat multiple times, and even made a model of a Erie canal packet boat. sometimes when i am walking the canal and just want to go back to 1825 and live in a cabin in the wilderness on the canal and enjoy that breeze and ride the canal on a little packet boat. It must have been something.
the bicycle path / tow path from Lockport to Newark is one of the best bicycle paths in the world, right along the canal the entire way - no cars, no noise for over 100 miles
East from Newark to Albany the "canal path " is actually on roads most of the way
3:55 With all due respect to the mayor of Rochester - this city was not built on the canal nor did its waterway power the flour mills which made it prosperous. The city was built on the Genesee Falls on the Genesee River several miles north of the canal. The canal helped transport flour through canal tributaries that were dug to the downtown area and it did increase the population of the region but it was not the foundation of Rochester.
At least she didn't start on slavery, white people and Donald Trump 😎...oh wait, never miss an opportunity!
the genessee and the erie canal intersect right next to the airport.
I was born in Little Falls, the Highest Lift lock, Lock 17, on the Canal. Later grew up in Rochester, and lived also in Albion & Brockport all along the canal. Nice historical piece.
I live in Rochester , your name and face sound familiar
I didn't know that about Little Falls' lock. I lived in No. Chili for 3+ yrs, spending lots of time in Spencerport, and Fairport locks.. very cool!
im from buffalo but i live in Rochester the 200 year old canal is certainly precious
Born and raised in Little Falls and my dad's cousin worked at lock 17 for the state. Made a good living and enjoyed his work.
Growing up here in Buffalo, NY and having the Erie Canal in my backyard, there are so many things I didn't know about, until this video. I'm 67 y/o and this vid has inspired me, to due a bit, more, maybe alot more, research on the canal. In the past I've taken my 21 footer I/O for a trip to see how far my friends and I would go before being bored. Rochester was it, too slow for 22 y/olds. But the scenery was pretty cool. Medina area was surprising and believe it or not there were places we could replenish our beer supply en route. Couldn't do that nowadays. Oh well.
Thank goodness we did not ❤ it yet again
The canal didn't go to Buffalo. It ended in the Tonawandas, where it connected to the Niagara River.
Fun fact: 80 percent of all the people who live in upstate New York, live within 25 miles of the Erie Canal.
Also, once it proved successful, a bunch of people built smaller "feeder" canals to allow goods and passengers to reach more places, up in northern New York State.
Until the canal, New York was just another seaport on the East Coast of the young United States, competing for shipping with other towns -- especially Boston.
The canal allowed ships to bring cargo bound for every town on the shores of the Great Lakes, and take back to Europe the bulk goods and other cargoes from the entire Upper Midwest.
Once the workers had completed the Erie Canal -- and then widened it and deepened it -- New York became the primary seaport for the entire United States.
Nothing else even came close, no place else could even begin to compete.
The Erie Canal made New York City the premiere center of American culture (and no, I don't care whether or not you like it -- facts are facts), commerce, business and finance, and one of the four centers (with Los Angeles, London and Paris -- although Berlin is rising fast) of modern Western Civilization.
That said, as much as I enjoyed this video, they might have mentioned that the canal isn't in good repair, the entire length, any longer.
Some parts of it were incorporated into a modern canal, which bypassed some of the older parts.
Those bypassed sections are in pretty poor repair, in spots, and have become empty ditches with no water.
There was a canal that at one point connected Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and at the time was considered a world wonder of engineering. The canal featured a railroad to move boats up and down the Appalachian mountains. Unfortunately not much remains of it as the railroad boom occurred around the same time it opened.
was great living near the Eriecanal Born and raised in Medina by the canal. Grandpa worked on the lift bridge
Mom’s ancestors lived along the canal in North Tonawanda (near the Buffalo end), and happened to grow aspidistra plants in their back yard near the canal. Cuttings from those hardy plants have been handed down through the generations, and I have one in a big clay pot next to me as I type this.
WSJ did an article last year how one can now take a boat in a loop from NYC up the Hudson to the Erie to Lake Michigan to the Illinois Michigan Canal to the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic and back up to NYC
I've heard of a few retired couples who spend they year following fair weather on that route
The Erie Canal is indeed why New York City became the largest city in USA for commerce and stock market capitalization, eclipsing Philadelphia and Boston. Also, the synergy of these NY canals made several cities and towns of upstate New York robust for trade and an impressive beacon of the world in research and development both in industries and fine universities. This is what was meant by the Empire State and a major engine to American economic strength and prowess. As of today however, it is hopeful but difficult for upstate NY to rebuild commerce from losses due to increased competition and higher expenses of business.
Yeah, I grew up in Buffalo and Rochester, with relatives in Syracuse. Those cities are struggling to re-invent themselves, and have less than half their peak populations in 1950 +/-
oh wow that's crazy - I guess they're part of the Rust Belt, eh
may be new york state is mean and nasty to business. may be its very high taxes. how lojmg has new york state been ruled by one party. new yorks dont learn from hostory. they move down to red states and still want to do the same failed ideas i hope up state new york can get it to geter
@@O-sa-car no, the only steel mill in NY state was Bethlehem Steel, just south of Buffalo
Several years ago, while spending a few days at Niagara Falls, we took a side trip to Lockport and toured a portion of the canal. For me it was an eye-opener. I'd known about the canal since grammar school, but the engineering achievement of canal and its impact on our nation had, until that moment, been lost on me.
John Fortunato it totally changed the transportation cost between east coast and Great Lakes. It allowed millions of tons of freight to be moved with zero friction. Created the great cities like Chicago, Detroit.
@@777jones only for 4 years
in 1829 the Welland Canal connected Lake Erie to Lake Ontario thru Canada, allowing ships to come up the St Lawrence River past Lake Ontario to the rest of the great lakes, but it was a LONG away around from NY City
It’s a shame that it’s not still in use today
It is, just the newest version of the canal. www.canals.ny.gov/
l was born in Venezuela but i love this country like my country God bless USA. Living in Chicago for long time.
Anybody watching this who hasn't been there before needs to go to Lockport, NY and go on the Canal tour.
In the winter they would drain the canal, at least from bushnell basin to pittsford,I only lived less than a mile away, so we would skate to high school. Yeah, Sutherland.
My GG grandfather and relatives on both sides worked on or ran boats on the Erie. They lived in Durhamville and Oneida County.
I like that someone is digging to make sure that it's deep enough. Americans and their love for their country is amazing.
You can travel on a boat from Buffalo to Florida and only be in the ocean for 38 miles. The canal to the ocean then the inter coastal water way. Living in the Finger Lakes region the Wife and I ride our Motorcycles to diff locks all over the state. We also took a boat tour out of Herkimer in 2017. The tour guide gives a lot of history on the canal while on the tour. Always been infatuated with the Erie Canal.
Happy Birthday Erie Canal
I grew up on this landmark structure as well, just amazing.
Ok, in NY state, they frequently have signs to tune to such-and-such radio frequency for traffic information. I have long thought each segment of the canal should have an audio recording of the history of the Erie canal broadcasted 24/7 for travelers on the New York State thruway to be entertained and educated. I'm sure local businesses would advertise and it would be self funded, if not profitable.
hats a good idea. Ill write Govervor Cuomo if he survives in Government
Good plan!
@@MVMTV4Videos Well he didn't. What now???😂😂 freaking Cuomo!!! They should change the name of "the bridge" back to the Tappan Zee now.
I loved this!! I went to college in Brockport and actually bought property adjacent to the Erie canal back in the 1970's. VERY cool video! Thanks!!
Starting at only $8k/couple for 13 days from NYC to Montreal. I could go on at least 4 ocean cruises, to places I couldn't drive to, for that price.
Great engineering achievement. Thanks for sharing.
yes in deed. the biggest undertaking ever at that time. the budget was 6million
grew up swimming in the canal in Utica NY ,i read someone on here saying there is the old canal and the new csnal and that is 100% true the old canal used to run right through downtown Utica but they filled it in an moved it parallel to the mohawk river which also runs through utica ,and they call the new canal the "barge canal" not the erie canal
How deep was the canal when you're used to swim in it? What type of bottom was it rocks and mud?
My town said it will take 8 years to turn an old rail line into a simple bike path in NJ.
We should improve and expand the USA inland waterways and create new connections. For example, a new canal could be built to connect Lake Superior to the Mississippi River via the Saint Croix River. Reconstructing and expanding the old Ohio and Erie Canal could connect Lake Erie to the Ohio River to allow more traffic than it ever had in the past. Height limits from bridges could be raised or eliminated along all the waterways by adding lift bridges to allow taller ships to navigate more areas. Canals could be widened and deepened. Locks could be upgraded for faster and easier travel. Navigation and access improvements could improve travel times and reduce costs to make transport along the waterways more attractive again.
The trouble is that to make that truly economical, all of those old canals would have to not only be rebuilt, but rebuilt to the size of modern container ships so that economies of scale could overpower the speed advantage of rail.
Why?
you can sail the intercoastal waterway from Maine to Key West
This kind of infrastructure gave the north a HUGE advantage against the south in the Civil War. The south didn't have transportation infrastructure that was anything close to this.
Love these stories...still great news program
We complain about machine’s we have today to Dig. These ole folks did it by hand 🖐🏻 😱💪🏻🇺🇸
In a side note Clinton planned another canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River at Cincinnati he went so far as to acquire land on Lake Erie and have his partner a surveyor named Ezekiel Haines lay out a town but with the coming of the railroad it now being impractical and no investors could be found.The town that eventually had people settle there was named Port Clinton,Ohio either in his honor or because he was a politician by himself for his vanity.
One of my bucket list items is to ride the towpath from Albany to Buffalo on my bike (along with the C&O/Great Allegheny Passage).
East of Newark NY the "towpath" bicycle path is not next to the canal, its on roads and streets
With respect to Mayor Warren, Rochester was already a boomtown before the canal ran through it. Our foundation, and reason for growth and success, was and continues to be the Genesee River.
The Genesee River was considered an extension of the canal, crossing Broad Street in an aquaduct.
why respect inaccuracy?
Why respect a cocaine dealers wife
@@reallyhappenings5597 it's moreso respecting the position she holds, not necessarily her specifically.
Yes, there is the Genesee, but there is no doubt that without the Erie Canal, transport in Upstate NY let alone to New York City would have been inefficient.
I live along the Erie Canal in Rochester. Great walking track now
Do you want to know why it was ahead of schedule and under-budget? Because the government had nothing to do with it.
By your definition, I suppose the Government of New York State isn't 'the government?'
Yeah definitely, or maybe the fact that there were no labor laws to govern safety, quality, etc.
@@chuckbfloYou stand corrected. No, in fact both NYC and NY state governments did not fully finance nor construct nor run the Erie Canal. The vast majority of the funding was indeed from private bond sales through PRIVATE SECTOR investment; the Erie Canal would never have happened strictly as a government funded effort. The point is indeed valid that government, especially today, is often overwhelmed with insufficient and negligent planning, extensive delay, finished over budget, and often laden in corruption. The Big Dig in Boston is a classic example of that sort of government bureaucracy. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, finished and financed with private bonds in 1963 at over 20 miles with 2 longer tunnels and 4 manmade islands over deeper bay water, was indeed finished under budget and on time despite a destructive storm delaying progress. The CBBT, just like the Erie Canal, would not have been built strictly from only government funding, research, and construction.
@@johnkeller9738 But, that doesn't fit the socialist/statist/authoritarian narrative that government has all the answers. At its heart, their ideology is so insulting: either the public is too stupid OR too powerless to possess the FREEDOM to make their own decisions. US liberals only wish to RESTRICT FREEDOM (except for a relatively few social issues). They fully believe that these decisions should be turned over entirely to the God called "government."
@Wolf Man not really look at the uk train system vs France's. The uks is a disaster because of private ownership.
It's cool they were able to do all this back in the 1800's, under budget and got it completed in 10 years.
Congratulations! It' s an admirable venture!
And this is why DeWitt Clinton is still remembered, while most other NY governors are quickly forgotten.
Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt were all governors of NY.
I live in NY, I forgot Andy Cuomo and he is the current governor
Jttv Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas E Dewey. Living my whole life in NY I can remember plenty. Drive around any fairly large city an there is some road or landmark name after all.
I said "most" not "all".
I don't know of any other states with as many memorable governors.
You can also dock your boat at Richardson's canal house inn located in bushnells basin NY and enjoy a gourmet meal.
Another cool canal is the D&H canal which ran from the Hudson River to the Delaware River. I use to truck down route 52 between Kingston ny to port jervis ny all the time. There are several historic markers along route 52 were you can pull off and check it out.
Last summer I paddled from south buffalo to brockport. Two thirds of it was on the canal, it was awesome. Camped on the towpath, a wide water, and someone’s backyard. This year I’m continuing by taking my god son from brockport to Rochester on one trip and another one going east from Rochester.
oh sure.... you went downhill...
Learned that song as a kid.
Living here in the Albany, New York area the canal is all around me going up through the Mohawk River area, what a very interesting and amazing engineering feat way back then
A nice summary of history and the importance of the Erie Canal. Far Better than what I was taught in school. One last note, Seneca Falls was the model for Bedford Falls in It's a Wonderful Life.
Quite some years ago I tagged along with a friend taking his family's boat from Toledo to New Paltz. Traversing the Canal was an unforgettable experience. A beautiful experience, except for an unexpected squall on one of the lakes. That was scary. So glad I took the time to do it, though.
My boyfriend worked 20 years as lock master for the Champlain Locks.
2:50 - "Completed in just eight years."
California has had a fully staffed "Department of High-Speed Rail" since 1995 and not one foot of track has been laid.
People are retiring from the department, with full pensions, never producing one thing the Department was set up to do.
Remember this when you look forward to socialized medicine or anything the government says it will provide for you.
Laceykat66 AND! Paid it off in 10 yrs!
That California story is sickening. On the other hand not much is mentioned about the brutal hard work that went on that built up the U.S. through getting paid pennies or even slavery.
Yea, it was hard work building a country from scratch. AND they had poor cell reception most of the time. Oh, the humanity!!
It produced cushy government jobs and probably got a career boost for the person who started it. So it produced exactly everything it was set up to do.
The high speed rail project is a lot more complicated and has thus far yielded one new bridge. Our wonderful healthcare system in the U.S. allows for 45,000 deaths per year.
we have forgotten how too move water as shown by the lack of water behind the big dams in the west almost at dead pool.
And btw... It doesn't come out in Buffalo. It forms the border between Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, New York. 8 or 10 miles north of Buffalo.
the Black Rock canal connects Buffalo to the Erie Canal
without it boats would have to navigate the 10mph current up the Niagara river
guess you never heard of canalside in Buffalo where the original walls from the erie canal were un earthed about 10yrs ago,so yes it did come out in Bufallo dip stick
This is great history made relevant
I grew up in MN was fascinated with the song. After 40 years in CT I finally drove up to see the canal July 3rd. Never saw a hint that the 4th 2as it's 200th Birthday! Had a wonderful tour. This video adds much more! THANKS!
Never underestimate New York's ability to miss a tourism opportunity!
Would also add a great job by NY State for keeping it up, we have traveled by boat through it and Champlain canal and both were very well maintained and the lock tenders were exceptionally nice and helpful.
Dan H that’s newer parts the old parts are not used a lot of the og has fallen into disrepair
One of my dreams is to do that trip. I’m in love with the whole Erie Canal Great Lakes region
If you can get an electric barge that takes a shipping container (same load as a semi), and supercharges at each lock, you could get some business going. Like Greyhound Buses the driver would go up the canal, have lunch while it recharges; then take an identical boat back down to home and pass it on. Like a conveyor belt but not on the road..
4:08 is that a bench table in the water?
Picnic table J chillin' in the river
haha! good catch
omg your right must have lost her littel babys
You must have a big big screen TV.
The first section was basically just five miles long, it avoided the rapids on the Mohawk river, and was so profitable that all the local businesses got on board to support further expansion. This is not an example of American ingenuity, there were hundreds of canals already built in England at the time. The Chesapeake canal had already been built and it's founders would go on to build America's first railroad. Upstate New York at the time was an unspoiled wilderness, and most people just thought going west by water was just dumb.
Absolutely this is American ingenuity.
On time & under budget !
Imagine that! Lol
Nothing like that happens anymore.
Yeah..no unions.
Reminds me of the " Canal du Midi" in France, same sort of engineering marvel and achievement. They had big dreams and visions back then.
there are always people with "vision". more recent examples are the interstate highway system, the electric grid, the cellular network, the internet.
even right now there are groups out there trying to implement things like the hyperloop and space tourism and colonizing mars (a dumb idea, but one requiring vision).
and all of those are just examples of vision from within the same sort of infrastructure space that spawned the canal.
EJ Jaquez Then there are the people trying to colonize Uranus.
On a clear nite you can see Ur"ANUS"
There is the old Erie canal and there is the canal of today. some of canal today does not run on the old canal
I thought it was now called the Barge canal
some of the old canal does run along the barge canal.
in Chittenango is some of canal. Runs towards Syracuse
It was commonly referred to as the “barge canal” at least as long ago as the 1930’s.
Wish the canal was used more, it would take some heavy lifting and alleviate the roads; but would move too slowly now for this century. But an enviable piece of construction under budget.
terryfriend16 it can still make economic sense for bulky relatively low cost cargo like aggregate, coal etc. One barge can carry the same as a dozen trucks or more, using less fuel.
Why wasn't a connection ever made to lake Ontario. It was not so distant at one point.
The Oswego did just that when it opened in 1828. Connecting the Erie Canal through the Oswego to Lake Ontario.
On the playground where I went to grade school in Evansville, indiana there was a sign that said "The terminus of the old Wabash and Erie Canal".
This, the longest leg of the Erie Canal was 460 miles long from Toledo , Ohio to Evansville, Indiana on the Ohio River.
People up north may not be aware of this large portion of the Erie Canal.
NY's Erie Canal is a separate enterprise than the Ohio and Erie or the Miami and Erie Canals of Ohio. The commonality besides being a method of transport is that their route included a terminus at Lake Erie. They may have all operated as a transportation way in tandem, but NY's Canal was and is today, entirely its own beast.
My dad worked Eastman Kodak but in Texas.i have heard of Rochester my whole life.
I live in Rochester and have heard of Texas my whole life!
I think of my great uncle Frank who came from Ireland, brought the rest of his family (2 brothers and two sisters and his mother) from County Cork to upstate NY to build the Canal and a bunch or Roads in syracuse, Liverpool and surrounding areas including Wetzele road which my grandparents 56 acre farm boardered. Occasionally, my brother, father and grandfather fished in a still navigable part of the Canal in the early 60's. Fishing was good
My Irish descendants were from Williamsport Pa. maybe they worked on the canal. Maybe they should have named it the Erie Irish Canal.
I've been watching "Travel by Narrowboat" on Amazon Prime, and am now totally enamored by the romance of it all. If it's still possible to rent, and self pilot, a canal boat on the Erie Canal, I believe I just found next year's vacation.
It is. Really any boat will work, with obvious size limitations. There has been a decent resurgence of business along the canal to cater to the tourists. Western & Central NY are great places to visit in the summer months. You will also want to check out the finger lakes, the vineyards alone are worth the trip, which have been recently voted by usa today as best wine region in the US. Also your trip would not be complete without a visit to Letchworth State Park, called the Grand Canyon of the east, and watkins Glenn State Park, which are both a day trip from the canal.
@@Stonecrow25 Thanks for the reply and information! Funny you should mention Letchworth, as I vacationed there two summers as a kid back in the mid-70's. The Genessee River Gorge is truly a sight. My sister lives in Liverpool (Syracuse), and has also mentioned that the finger lakes are a must see. Upstate NY has some of the most beautiful country in the US. No offense to NYC, as it has a beauty of its own, but imo, it's a shame folks relate to it, instead of the countryside, when NY is mentioned in conversation.
A recurring problem in early US development was that of transportation between the coastal ports and the interior. Close to the seacoast, rivers often provided adequate waterways, but the Appalachian Mountains, 400 miles inland, running over 1,500 miles long as a barrier range with just five places where mule trains or wagon roads could be routed presented a great challenge. 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, hence, that was the only place a canal could be built.
No way it could be built today, never mind on time and under budget.
A sad number of canals have been paved over. New Jersey's Delaware and Raritan(guess which rivers it connects ;) ) has highways built on top of 2 or 3 segments, and only one set of locks survive and they're cutoff from the majority of it by highway 18.
Thanks, i didn't know it was still operating.
It's interesting to know that this song was written in Natick the next town over to where I live in Framingham.
We had a canal starting at the bay in Erie, Pa and heading south/west
Absolutely true.
I lived in Albany for many years; rode that path on bicycle for many times. Saw the traffic through the locks, weren't prolific at that time in 1999, but there were still boats going through.
I lived/ worked there in Albany also around that same time. I also explored the paths alongside the canal trying to find traces of horses were mules.😆
Seriously though it's quite historic. I've been to many of the locks and was fascinated by them considering how old they were.
Kind of sad looking at all the old factories in Albany along the Hudson River and Troy now dilapidated.
@@desertodavid yes, same with many towns along the canal; look at Buffalo - they've been trying to rejuvenate that city for years.
What happened to the Native people that lived on and around the canal?
Grew up in Rotterdam and going to watch the boats come through Lock #8
Amazing!! I learned something new today..."Erie canal, is like the internet, for today's time"
Remarkable
Back when our country could get things done.
Why is the canal so polluted?
The Erie Canal was first opened in 1825
the first railroad in the US was running in 1830
so within 5 years, the canal was functionally obsolete
BRAVO ! Well done !
I’m from Rome! It would have been nice had they mentioned the canal was started in Rome! Just sayin!
Clinton.
There's one in camilus
Our grade school field trip from Clinton NY. Still know all the words.
"Added to the population of Lockport" Oh there were additions to the population alright
Grew up in the City of Tonawanda, now the Western Terminus of the NY State Barge Canal (the final iteration and improvement to the original canal), my elementary school on the bank is now apartments- just one of the many towns along the canal with declining populations and having to reinvent themselves. But surrounding all the nostalgia, and briefly touched on in the story, are the many injustices American migration to Western NY wrought to the Native Americans who were removed to reservations. The injustices continued after the canal was established, at least in my "sundowner town" where African-Americans were not welcome after dusk (what I thought was a quaint whistle from the Water Department, loud enough to hear across town every night at 9pm and a signal to kids to go home in the pre-cell phone days, was in fact a relic from the canal days to tell African-Americans working on canal boats to leave town).
Discrimination was, and is, not just a thing in the South.
Erie canal network went all the way to toledo. Didn't stop at buffalo.
I lived in Waterville in the late 40s. There was a very wide dry ditch there full of wildflowers and arrowheads. They said it was part of the Erie Canal that was never used because the times and needs changed. The part that it was built to connect with was never completed. They eventually filled it in and laid the Anthony Wayne Trail over it.
Shoutout lock number 24
Why don't these stories include the rest of the Erie canal? I live in Southwest Ohio, about 600 feet from the Erie canal, and we have locks here, and an original boat that was actually used on the canal for transport. Surplus stone blocks from the locks construction was found on my property a few years ago.
That's the Ohio and Erie Canal. The actual Erie Canal is still in use.
@@jshepard152 EXACTLY. All other canals, like the Baltimore & Ohio owe their existence to THIS canal in upstate NY. It alone is the granddaddy.
Love the boat at 7:17.
Absolutely incredible engineering achievement. A great shame this isn't more well appreciated.
The schools are too busy teaching kids about how this country was so unfairly developed and how achievers are "greedy"...
Why don't people realize way before the Erie Canal was a different canal the English from England brought all the things that the Erie Canal did it was called the Dundee canal Northern New Jersey across from New York or what they called New Amsterdam even a place called Dey mansion Washington's retreat and home base during the Revolutionary War
Because this is far more important?
I'm getting a very erie feeling about this video
thank the lord for those irish indentured.
I demand reparations! I'm Irish in America and have no proof that any of my ancestors were indentured. But I'm here and so were they so gibs me money.
PLEASE KEEP THEM OPEN AND IN USE
With the high cost of diesel fuel, the canal as a freight conveyance is enjoying a (modest) renaissance.
Help me somebody! The pictures all seem to show the animals pulling the barge from one side of the canal. But wouldn't that pull the barge against the bank as well as down the canal? I have this mental picture of those poor animals dragging the barge against the bank for the whole trip.
Dennis - They had couple of employees on the boat. There was always someone to steer. The problems that did occur was when two boats approached from each direction. Certain rules applied and there was a specific method to get the two boats around each other.