Technology & Living Standards - Barges and Canals

Erie & Barge Canals

The Erie Canal, which later was enlarged and called the New York State Barge Canal, is the most famous of all American canals. It linked the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean and thereby contributed to the prosperity of people who lived along the canal, the lakes, nearby rivers, and the Atlantic coast. It bound the people in the western states to those of the east rather than their establishing a new country or joining Canada to the north or Mexico to the south. It hastened the growth and prosperity of Buffalo in the west, New York City in the east, and many smaller cities and villages along its route by shunting trade east rather than north through Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean and south through the Ohio and Mississippi and (2) Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico. It provided cash to the men working on the canal and to the nearby residents who provided them with food, clothing, lodging, entertainment, equipment, and supplies. It educated the first generation of American civil engineers who went on to build more canals, roads, railroads, bridges, and tunnels. Land values soared for property owners along the Erie route. The canal provided businessmen and farmers with cheaper transportation for their goods and crops and cheaper machinery and supplies in return. Canal tolls augmented the revenues and wealth of New York State. The canal attracted so many farmers, tradesmen, manufacturers and merchants to New York State that its population and many of its industries increased to first place among the states until modern times. The Erie encouraged canal building in many other regions of the U.S. to improve transportation and the lives of many Americans. This essay is a contribution to the history of that amazing engineering wonder of the 19th century, the Erie Canal.

State Canals

The Erie Canal was the largest of the New York State transportation canals, which included the following:

(1) Mohawk River & Wood Creek, the Erie predecessor canal

(2) Champlain

(3) Genesee Valley

(4) Keuka (Crooked Lake)

(5) Cayuga & Seneca

(6) Chemung

(7) Oswego

(8) Black River

(9) Chenango and its Extension

(10)Oneida Lake

(11) Junction

(12) Delaware & Hudson

(13) Gowanus

(14) Shinnecock and Peconic

The Erie and Champlain, which connected to each other, were built and owned simultaneously by New York State and were always considered separate canals. The Junction and D&H canals were privately built and owned. The Mohawk-Wood river improvements and canals were privately owned, but sold to New York State when it built the Erie Canal. The remaining canals were built and owned exclusively by New York State.

The Mohawk River and Wood Creek Canal was the immediate predecessor of the Erie Canal, since it was built along part of its eventual route. The Champlain Canal connected the Erie Canal at Cohoes, NY, with Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River through the Richelieu River and the Canadian Chambly Canal. The Gowanus Canal connected the Hudson River with the industrial section of Brooklyn, NY. The Shinnecock & Peconic canal connected bays of the same names on Long Island. The Delaware & Hudson Canal, owned by the D & H Canal (later, & Railroad) Company, connected the Hudson River with Honesdale, PA, a main anthracite coal loading point. The Junction Canal, privately owned, connected the Chemung Canal with the Northern Division of the Pennsylvania canal system. The remaining canals, known as "laterals", intersected the Erie Canal at various points to provide transportation between the Erie and cities and villages located south and north of the Erie.

History of the Erie & Barge Canals