The canal system of New York State is a complex network of natural and man-made waterways that connect two of the Great Lakes that border the state with the Atlantic Ocean. The canals also incorporate Lake Champlain and the Finger Lakes. The development of this system bridges several generations and gives the canal system a genealogy of its own.
The first branch of the New York Canal’s family tree was the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company (W.I.L.N.). This was a private enterprise and was funded by the sale of stock to people willing to invest in the future of their state. The company was headed by Philip Schuyler and their charter from New York State was granted in 1792.
A second company, the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company, which hoped to connect the Hudson with Lakes George and Champlain, was chartered at the same time but failed to find sufficient support, even after spending $100,000.
Both companies hoped to makes improvements to existing lake and river transportation at impediments to natural navigation. The improvements would be separate from one another, with natural waterways providing the continuous link.
W.I.L.N. built locks to surmount the elevation changes in the Mohawk River in the Schenectady-Cohoes area, the rapids at German Flatts, and the Little Falls of the Mohawk in Herkimer County. The company constructed wing walls, a low and incomplete impoundment structure, in an attempt to control water levels.
These improvements also included an artificial canal across what the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) referred to as “The Oneida Carrying Place.” This is a natural impediment of high ground forming a drainage divide. The W.I.L.N. improvement linked the eastward-flowing Mohawk River near Rome, with a westward-flowing tributary of Oneida Lake known as Wood Creek.
This region in present day Oneida County was known to even the Indigenous people as a geographic break point. The original canal improvement connected, through a narrow strait, the waters of Lake Ontario and tidewater. The canal eliminated the need to unload the boats and carry the cargo and the vessel over the short portage.
The W.I.L.N. improvements were used by traders operating in boats 30-50 feet long called Durham Boats. The Durhams were poled along, rowed or sailed by a three to eight man crew.
The water transport of trade goods was a major improvement over the scarce amount of surface transportation. There were drawbacks however. The current of the Mohawk was beneficial eastbound, but going west against the current required extreme physical effort.
Additionally, the level of the river could not be controlled. In the spring, or following a storm event, the river would run high and swift. Yet, during the summer months, the river would be low and slow, limiting the amount that the Durham Boats could carry and cutting into their profitability.
The W.I.L.N. stockholders suspended improvements after 1808. The original canal operated until 1810, and was sorely missed when war broke out with Great Britain in 1812.
The second generation of canal in New York State was the Erie Canal and its branch the Champlain Canal, which connects the Hudson River at Waterford to the south end of Lake Champlain at Whitehall. This 60-mile route was begun at the same time as the Erie Canal, and was fully open two years before the Erie in 1823.
The idea for these canals belongs to several forward thinking men, who envisioned the wealth a water link would generate. The Erie Canal was promoted in the public eye by one man, Dewitt Clinton, then mayor of New York City.
Clinton made construction of the canal the major plank of his platform when he ran and was elected Governor. Federal assistance, even though the entire nation would benefit from such a project, was denied by President Jefferson. The project was entirely funded by New York State and became one the new nation’s first major public works projects.
The Erie Canal would be entirely within New York State by virtue of the fact that the Mohawk Valley was one of the few breaks in the Appalachian Mountains. Erie Canal construction was begun in 1817, and completed in 1825.
The Erie Canal cross section, known as its prism, measured 40 feet across at the surface, 28 feet at the bottom, with a 4 foot depth. The locks could accommodate boats up to 78 feet long.
The original Erie and Champlain Canals were almost entirely artificial channels. One notable exception was the western terminus of the Erie Canal near Buffalo, where the canal occupied the enlarged Ellicott Creek for about 10 miles until it joined Lake Erie.
The reason for the entirely man-made channel, or land line, was that the canal boats were towed by draft animals, which were efficient only if there was no current to oppose their effort.
“Clinton’s Ditch” as it was first derisively referred to, was such a huge success that it was completely paid for by tolls in nine years. The commerce that it generated was so lively that by 1836 the third generation of canal was started.
This enlargement called for deepening the canal from 4 to 7 feet, and widening the prism to 70 feet, and lengthening the locks for longer boats.
Additionally, areas of the state not on the canal route successfully lobbied to have their locales connected to the Erie’s prosperity by way of lateral canals from the main line. These improvements would demand a far greater amount of water to successfully maintain the proper navigation levels.
The forth iteration of our canal system, undertaken in 1895-1898, was a failed attempt to again deepen the canal to 9 feet and to lengthen the locks to 110 feet. This branch of the canal’s family tree is blackened by a perceived scandal.
It may have been nothing more than improper contract announcements and faulty record keeping. However, the result was a stagnation of the project, and a reassessment of the way the canal operated.
Governor Theodore Roosevelt in 1899 requested a survey of further revisions to the canal system. This resulted in the 1903 referendum ballot for a Barge Canal. The people of New York State approved of the measure, and the fifth and present branch of canal lineage was begun.
This undertaking, because of advancements made in technology, was far more ambitious than any of the projects before. The new canal was to be, for the most part, a lakes and river improvement program.
Gone would be the towpath for draft animals, and motorized vessels of large proportions would replace them. Reinforced concrete structures would allow the taming of rivers.
The genealogy had turned full circle, as the latest canal would complete the unfulfilled ambitions of the first. The new improvement came to be known as the Barge Canal because it was a compromise between the draft animal-propelled canal and a sea going ship canal.
Read more about Canals in New York.
Illustrations, from above: 1858 Canal Map of New York State; map of Rome in 1809, showing the route dug by the Western Inland Lock and Navigation Company (NYS Library); Bateaux and Durham boats used in the Western Inland Lock and Navigation Co.’s Rome Canal from Christian Schultz’s Travels on an Inland Voyage (1810); 1856 Map of Waterford Village showing Champlain Canal Sidecut; NYS Barge Canal System map, 1920.
