Erie Canal

Near Oneida

In Palmyra

New York State Barge Canal in Palmyra - locks in background

The Erie Canal stretched from the Hudson River to Buffalo when it was completed in 1825.  You can't help but come across remnants of the Erie Canal as you drive across New York.  The Oneida and first Palmyra photo are part of the original canal route.  The canal was enlarged between 1836 and 1862.  The route was streamlined and enlarged again in the early 20th century to create the New York State Barge Canal.

Early plans had the canal terminating in Oswego at Lake Ontario.  However, that would have meant dealing with Niagara Falls to get to the western part of the country.  Instead the canal was dug to Buffalo. 

By opening up the western part of the country the Erie Canal turned New York City into the country's most important port in the early 19th century.  Commerce exploded and population grew, leaving Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Boston in the dust as important trade centers.  Upstate New York cities like Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester (where portions of the canal were replace by a subway system.  Bet you didn't know Rochester had a subway) and Buffalo also grew rapidly.  Upstate New York would have been early 19th century equivalents of Silicon Valley today.

The coming of the railroad in the 1830s meant that the canal's economic importance was relatively short-lived.  Today the canal is mainly used for recreation.

Comments

[cheryl]

When I was in grade school, (late '60s) we sang a song ... "Got a mule, her name is Sal. Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal."

[Marie Carnes]

So that is the Erie Canal. I always wondered what it looked like.

[Joe]

Four feet deep and forty feet wide I think.

[Jack]

i wonder if people swam in it...