Erie Canal

The waterway today referred to as the Erie Canal is quite different from the nineteenth-century Erie Canal. More than half of the original Erie Canal was destroyed or abandoned during construction of the New York State Barge Canal in the early 20th century. The sections of the original route remaining in use were widened significantly, mostly west of Syracuse, with bridges rebuilt and locks replaced. It was called the Barge Canal at the time, but that name fell into disuse with the disappearance of commercial traffic and the increase of recreational travel in the later 20th century.{{Cite web |title=The Changing Canal |url=https://dmcderm.digitalscholar.rochester.edu/chapter-2/ |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=From Erie Canal to Inner Loop: Spatial History of Downtown Rochester, New York |language=en}}

File:New York Relief 1.jpg, running east and west, cuts a natural path between the Catskill Mountains to the south and the Adirondack Mountains to the north.]]

File:Erie-canal 1840 map.jpg

Before railroads, water transport was the most cost-effective way to ship bulk goods. A mule can only carry about {{convert|250|lb|kg}} but can draw a barge weighing as much as {{convert|60000|lb|kg}} along a towpath."Works of Man", Ronald W. Clark, {{ISBN|0-670-80483-5}} (1985), Viking Penguin, New York
quotation page 87: "There was little experience moving bulk loads by carts, while a packhorse would carry only an eighth of a ton [{{convert|1250|LT}}]. On a soft road, a horse might be able to draw {{fraction|5|8}}ths of a ton [({{convert|0.6250|LT}}) or 5×]. But if the load were carried by a barge on a waterway, then up to 30 tons [({{convert|30|LT}} or {{convert|60000|lb}}) or 240×] could be drawn by the same horse." In total, a canal could cut transport costs by about 95 percent.Using Clark's Works of Man figures, a mule can draw 60,000 pounds but carry only 250 pounds, which needed men to load and unload daily. Mules also need to carry grain (parasitic weight), and for the same tonnages required far more men as a labor force, drastically increasing running costs.

In the early years of the United States, transportation of goods between the coastal ports and the interior was slow and difficult. Close to the seacoast, rivers provided easy inland transport up to the fall line, since floating vessels encounter much less friction than land vehicles. However, the Appalachian Mountains were a great obstacle to further transportation or settlement, stretching {{convert|1500|mi}} from Maine to Alabama, with just five places where mule trains or wagon roads could be routed.The five east–west crossings of the Appalachians are:
{{bull

}}Plains of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi (around the bottom),
{{bull

}}the Cumberland Gap pass connecting North Carolina/Southern Virginia with Kentucky/Tennessee,
{{bull

}}the Cumberland Narrows pass connecting Cumberland, Maryland (in Western Maryland) and Northern Virginia with West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania via Brownsville, Pennsylvania and the Monongahela River or the Youghiogheny River valley (both of the Ohio & Mississippi river system),
{{bull

}}the gaps of the Allegheny connecting the Susquehanna River Valley in central Pennsylvania with the Allegheny River valley (and again the Ohio Country),
{{bull

}}and lastly, the Mohawk River water gap and valley tributary of the Hudson River, creating what later advertising would call the level water route westwards.

Passengers and freight bound for the western parts of the country had to travel overland, a journey made more difficult by the rough condition of the roads. In 1800, it typically took 2½ weeks to travel overland from New York to Cleveland, Ohio, ({{convert|460|mi|disp=semicolon}}) and 4 weeks to Detroit ({{convert|612|mi|disp=semicolon}}).{{Cite web|url=http://railroads.unl.edu/documents/view_document.php?id=rail.str.0241|title=Railroads and the Making of Modern America | Search|website=railroads.unl.edu}}

The principal exportable product of the Ohio Valley was grain, which was a high-volume, low-priced commodity, bolstered by supplies from the coast. Frequently it was not worth the cost of transporting it to far-away population centers. This was a factor leading to farmers in the west turning their grains into whiskey for easier transport and higher sales, and later the Whiskey Rebellion. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it became clear to coastal residents that the city or state that succeeded in developing a cheap, reliable route to the West would enjoy economic success, and the port at the seaward end of such a route would see business increase greatly.Joel Achenbach, "America's River; From Washington and Jefferson to the Army Corps of Engineers, everyone had grandiose plans to tame the Potomac. Fortunately for us, they all failed". The Washington Post, May 5, 2002; p. W.12. In time, projects were devised in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and relatively deep into the coastal states.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The Mohawk River (a tributary of the Hudson River) 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. A navigable canal through the Mohawk Valley would allow an almost complete water route from New York City in the south to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie in the west. Via the canal and these lakes, other Great Lakes, and to a lesser degree, related rivers, a large part of the continent's interior (and many settlements) would be made well connected to the Eastern seaboard.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

{{anchor|Proposal/logistics}}

{{anchor|Proposal and logistics}}

File:DeWitt Clinton by Rembrandt Peale.jpg by Rembrandt Peale, 1823. Clinton was Governor of New York and a champion of the canal]]

Among the first attempts made by European colonists to improve upon the future state's navigable waterways was the construction in 1702 of the Wood Creek Carry, or Oneida Carry a short portage road connecting Wood Creek to the Mohawk River near modern-day Rome, New York.{{cite book |last= Bernstein|first=Peter L.|author-link= Peter L. Bernstein|title=Wedding of the Waters|date=January 31, 2006 |publisher=

W. W. Norton & Company|page=57,83|isbn=0-393-32795-7}} However, the first documented instance of the idea of a canal to tie the East Coast to the new western settlements via New York's waterways was discussed as early as 1724: New York provincial official Cadwallader Colden made a passing reference (in a report on fur trading) to improving the natural waterways of western New York.{{cite book |last= Bernstein|first=Peter L.|author-link= Peter L. Bernstein|title=Wedding of the Waters|date=January 31, 2006 |publisher=

W. W. Norton & Company|page=49|isbn=0-393-32795-7}} Colden and subsequent figures in the history of the Erie Canal and its development would draw inspiration from other great works of the so-called "canal age," including France's Canal du Midi and the Bridgewater Canal in England.{{cite book |last= Bernstein|first=Peter L.|author-link= Peter L. Bernstein|title=Wedding of the Waters|date=January 31, 2006 |publisher=

W. W. Norton & Company|page=118|isbn=0-393-32795-7}} The attempt in the 1780s by George Washington to build a canal from the tidewaters of the Potomac into the fledgling nation's interior was also well known to the planners of the Erie Canal.{{cite book |last= Bernstein|first=Peter L.|author-link= Peter L. Bernstein|title=Wedding of the Waters|date=January 31, 2006 |publisher=

W. W. Norton & Company|page=86|isbn=0-393-32795-7}}

Gouverneur Morris and Elkanah Watson were early proponents of a canal along the Mohawk River. Their efforts led to the creation of the "Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Companies" in 1792, which took the first steps to improve navigation on the Mohawk and construct a canal between the Mohawk and Lake Ontario,Calhoun, Daniel Hovey. The American civil engineer: Origins and conflict. Technology Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960. but it was soon discovered that private financing was insufficient. Christopher Colles, who was familiar with the Bridgewater Canal, surveyed the Mohawk Valley, and made a presentation to the New York state legislature in 1784, proposing a shorter canal from Lake Ontario. The proposal drew attention and some action but was never implemented.{{cite book |last= Bernstein|first=Peter L.|author-link= Peter L. Bernstein|title=Wedding of the Waters|date=January 31, 2006 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|page=81|isbn=0-393-32795-7}}

Jesse Hawley had envisioned encouraging the growing of large quantities of grain on the western New York plains (then largely unsettled) for sale on the Eastern seaboard. However, he went bankrupt trying to ship grain to the coast. While in Canandaigua debtors' prison, Hawley began pressing for the construction of a canal along the {{convert|90|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}} Mohawk River valley.{{Cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Peter L. |title=Wedding of the waters: the Erie Canal and the making of a great nation |date=2005 |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-05233-6 |edition=1. |location=New York |pages=123}} Support for a canal also came from Joseph Ellicott (agent for the Holland Land Company in Batavia). Ellicott realized that a canal would add value to the land he was selling in the western part of the state and served as one of the original Canal Commissioners.

New York legislators became interested in the possibility of building a canal across New York in the first decade of the 19th century. Shipping goods west from Albany was a costly and tedious affair; there was no railroad yet, and to cover the distance from Buffalo to New York City by stagecoach took two weeks.{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/erie-canal-opens|title=Erie Canal opens |date=2019-07-27|website=History |language=en|access-date=2019-11-10}} The problem was that the land rises about {{convert|600|ft|m}} from the Hudson to Lake Erie. Locks at the time could handle up to {{convert|12|ft|m}} of lift, so even with the heftiest cuttings and viaducts, fifty locks would be required along the {{convert|360|mi|km|adj=on}} canal. Such a canal would be expensive to build even with modern technology; in 1800, the expense was barely imaginable. President Thomas Jefferson called it "little short of madness" and rejected it.{{cite web |last1=Berkes |first1=Anna |title=Little short of madness...(Quotation) |url=https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/little-short-madnessquotation |website=Monticello.org |access-date=20 August 2019}}

Eventually, Hawley interested New York Governor DeWitt Clinton in the project. There was much opposition, and the project was ridiculed as "Clinton's folly" and "Clinton's ditch".[http://www.eriecanal.org/system.html The New York State Canal System], The Erie Canal Association.{{cite news|url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/history/the-buffalo-of-yesteryear-how-clintons-folly-put-buffalo-on-the-map/article_762cf663-9fd7-5148-b3fc-cae63117aca1.html|title=The Buffalo of Yesteryear: How 'Clinton's Folly' put Buffalo on the map|work=Buffalo News|author=Luke Hammill|date=Jan 30, 2018}}[http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/erie-canal-opens Erie Canal Opens], This Day in History: October 26, American HistoryChannel.comFrank E. Sadowski Jr., [http://www.eriecanal.org/ "Clinton's Big Ditch"], The Erie Canal Association.{{Self-published inline|date=March 2021}} In 1817, though, Clinton received approval from the legislature for $7 million for construction.{{Cite book |title=The Story of the New York State Canals |first=Roy G. |last=Finch |year=1925 |access-date=September 25, 2012 |publisher=New York State Engineer and Surveyor |url=http://www.canals.ny.gov/history/finch_history.pdf}}

File:1832 Erie Canal.jpg

File:NYmohawk-ErieCanalRexford.JPG at Rexford, one of 32 navigable aqueducts on the Erie Canal|alt=Black-and-white photo of aqueduct over curve in canal]]

File:Erie Lock4083.jpg]]

File:ErieCanalAtNiagaraEscarp.jpg at Lockport, now without gates and used as a cascade for excess water]]

The original canal was {{convert|363|mi|km}} long, from Albany on the Hudson to Buffalo on Lake Erie. The channel was cut {{convert|40|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|4|ft|m}} deep, with removed soil piled on the downhill side to form a walkway known as a towpath. Its construction, through limestone and mountains, proved a daunting task. To move earth, animals pulled a "slip scraper" (similar to a bulldozer). The sides of the canal were lined with stone set in clay, and the bottom was also lined with clay. The Canal was built by Irish laborers and German stonemasons.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} All labor on the canal depended upon human and animal power or the force of water. Engineering techniques developed during its construction included the building of aqueducts to redirect water; one aqueduct was {{convert|950|ft}} long to span {{convert|800|ft}} of river. As the canal progressed, the crews and engineers working on the project developed expertise and became a skilled labor force.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The men who planned and oversaw construction were novices as surveyors and as engineers. There were no civil engineers in the United States.Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation, Peter L. Bernstein James Geddes and Benjamin Wright, who laid out the route, were judges whose experience in surveying was in settling boundary disputes. Geddes had only used a surveying instrument for a few hours before his work on the Canal. Canvass White was a 27-year-old amateur engineer who persuaded Clinton to let him go to Britain at his own expense to study the canal system there. Nathan Roberts was a mathematics teacher and land speculator. 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. The first {{convert|15|mi}}, from Rome to Utica, opened in 1819. At that rate, the canal would not be finished for 30 years. The main delays were caused by felling trees to clear a path through virgin forest and moving excavated soil, which took longer than expected, but the builders devised ways to solve these problems. To fell a tree, they threw rope over the top branches and winched it down. They pulled out the stumps with an innovative stump puller. Two huge wheels were mounted loose on the ends of an axle. A third wheel, slightly smaller than the others, was fixed to the center of the axle. A chain was wrapped around the axle and hooked to the stump. A rope was wrapped around the center wheel and hooked to a team of oxen. The mechanical advantage (torque) obtained ripped the stumps out of the soil. Soil to be moved was shoveled into large wheelbarrows that were dumped into mule-pulled carts. Using a scraper and a plow, a three-man team with oxen, horses and mules could build a mile in a year.{{cite book|title=A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1730–1930, Vol. 3: The Transmission of Power |last=Hunter |first=Louis C. |author2=Bryant, Lynwood |year=1991 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, London |isbn=978-0-262-08198-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrFHAAAAYAAJ }}

The remaining problem was finding labor; increased immigration helped fill the need. Many of the laborers working on the canal were Irish, who had recently come to the United States as a group of about 5,000. Most of them were Roman Catholic, a religion that raised much suspicion in early America because of its hierarchic structure, and many laborers on the canal suffered violent assault as the result of misjudgment and xenophobia.{{rp|52}}

Construction continued at an increased rate as new workers arrived. When the canal reached Montezuma Marsh (at the outlet of Cayuga Lake west of Syracuse), it was rumored that over 1,000 workers died of "swamp fever" (malaria), and construction was temporarily stopped.{{cite book |author=Gerard Koeppel |title=Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZfDpibTwjQC&pg=PT212 |year=2009 |publisher=Da Capo Press |pages=212–13|isbn=9780786745449 }} However, recent research has revealed that the death toll was likely much lower, as no contemporary reports mention significant worker mortality, and mass graves from the period have never been found in the area.{{cite book |author=Andrew Kitzmann |title=Postcard History Series:Erie Canal |isbn=978-0738562001 |year=2009 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |page=71}} Work continued on the downhill side towards the Hudson, and the crews worked on the section across the swampland when it froze in winter.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The middle section from Utica to Salina (Syracuse) was completed in 1820, and traffic on that section started up immediately. Expansion to the east and west proceeded simultaneously, and the whole eastern section, {{convert|250|mi|km}} from Brockport to Albany, opened on September 10, 1823, to great fanfare.{{Cite web|title=1825 Erie Canal Opened|url=https://www.historycentral.com/Ant/Eirie.html|access-date=2021-04-16|website=History Central}} The Champlain Canal, a separate but connected {{convert|64|mi|km|adj=on}} north–south route from Watervliet on the Hudson to Lake Champlain, opened on the same date.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

After Montezuma Marsh, the next difficulties were crossing Irondequoit Creek and the Genesee River near Rochester. The former ultimately required building the {{convert|1320|ft|m|adj=on}} long "Great Embankment", to carry the canal at a height of {{convert|76|ft|m}} above the level of the creek, which ran through a {{convert|245|ft|m|adj=on}} culvert underneath.{{cite news|last1=Farley |first1=Doug |title=ERIE CANAL DISCOVERY: The great embankment |url=http://www.lockportjournal.com/archives/erie-canal-discovery-the-great-embankment/article_578b842a-7da5-5642-b343-35943298f552.html |access-date=May 12, 2015 |work=Lockport Union-Sun & Journal |date=September 18, 2007}} The canal crossed the river on a stone aqueduct, {{convert|802|ft|m}} long and {{convert|17|ft|m}} wide, supported by 11 arches.{{cite web|title=The Genesee River Aqueduct |url=http://eriecanal.org/Rochester-2.html |website=The Erie Canal |publisher=Monroe County Library System |access-date=May 12, 2015}}{{Self-published inline|date=March 2021}}

In 1823 construction reached the Niagara Escarpment, an {{convert|80|ft|m|adj=on}}-high wall of hard dolomitic limestone. The route followed the channel of a creek that had cut a ravine steeply down the escarpment. The construction and operation of two sets of five locks along a {{convert|3|mi|adj=on}} corridor soon gave rise to the community of Lockport. The {{convert|12|ft|m|adj=on}} lift-locks had a total lift of {{convert|60|ft|m}}, exiting into a deeply cut channel. The final leg had to be cut {{convert|30|ft|m}} deep through another limestone mass, the Onondaga ridge. Much of that section was blasted with black powder, and the inexperience of the crews often led to accidents, and sometimes to rocks falling on nearby homes.{{Cite web |title=Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor :: History and Culture |url=https://eriecanalway.org/learn/history-culture |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=eriecanalway.org}}

Two villages competed to be the terminus: Black Rock, on the Niagara River, and Buffalo, at the eastern tip of Lake Erie. Buffalo expended great energy to widen and deepen Buffalo Creek to make it navigable and to create a harbor at its mouth. Buffalo won over Black Rock, and grew into a large city, eventually annexing its former rival.{{Cite web |last=Zimmermann |first=Bill |date=2007-04-13 |title=On This Day in 1853, Black Rock Annexed by Buffalo: Forty Year Rivalry Ends |url=https://www.buffalorising.com/2007/04/on-this-day-in-1853-black-rock-annexed-by-buffalo-forty-year-rivalry-ends/ |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Buffalo Rising |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Black Rock |url=https://buffaloah.com/h/br/brfox/index.html |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=buffaloah.com}}

File:WLA nyhistorical Keg with stand from Erie Canal celebration.jpg

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.Spafford, Horatio Gates (1778-1832). A pocket guide for the tourist and traveller, along the line of the canals, and the interior commerce of the state of New-York, 2nd ed. Troy: William S. Parker Publishing, 1825.

The entire canal was officially completed on October 26, 1825. The event was marked by a statewide "Grand Celebration", culminating in a series of cannon shots along the length of the canal and the Hudson, a 90-minute cannonade from Buffalo to New York City. A flotilla of boats, led by Governor Dewitt Clinton aboard Seneca Chief, sailed from Buffalo to New York City over ten days. Clinton then ceremonially poured Lake Erie water into New York Harbor to mark the "Wedding of the Waters". On its return trip, Seneca Chief brought back a keg of Atlantic Ocean water, which was poured into Lake Erie by Buffalo's Judge Samuel Wilkeson, who would later become mayor.{{cite journal |last1=Segol |first1=Marla |title=The Magic Mirror of Ritual: Three Weddings of the Waters and the Grand Celebrations of the Erie Canal |journal=CrossCurrents |date=March 2024 |volume=74 |issue=1 |page=21 |doi=10.1353/cro.2024.a935958}}

The Erie Canal was thus completed in eight years at a total length of {{convert|353|miles}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74895313/erie-canal-opening-2/ |title=Erie Canal Completion |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |page=1 |date=September 10, 1825}} and cost $7.143 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|7.143|1825|r=0}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}).{{cite journal |last1=Ransom |first1=Roger |title=Canals and Development: A Discussion of the Issues |journal=American Economic Review |date=May 1964 |volume=54 |issue=3 |page=375}}{{Inflation-fn|US}} It was acclaimed as an engineering marvel that united the country and helped New York City develop as an international trade center.

Problems developed but were quickly solved. Leaks developed along the entire length of the canal, but these were sealed using cement that hardened underwater (hydraulic cement). Erosion on the clay bottom proved to be a problem and the speed was limited to {{convert|4|mph|km/h|abbr=on}}.

File:Erie Canal Map 1853.jpg

Additional feeder canals soon extended the Erie Canal into a system. These included the Cayuga-Seneca Canal south to the Finger Lakes, the Oswego Canal from Three Rivers north to Lake Ontario at Oswego, and the Champlain Canal from Troy north to Lake Champlain. 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. The Chenango Canal in 1836 connected the Erie Canal at Utica to Binghamton and caused a business boom in the Chenango River valley. The Chenango and Chemung canals linked the Erie with the Susquehanna River system. The Black River Canal connected the Black River to the Erie Canal at Rome and remained in operation until the 1920s. The Genesee Valley Canal was run along the Genesee River to connect with the Allegheny River at Olean, but the Allegheny section, which would have connected to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, was never built. The Genesee Valley Canal was later abandoned and became the route of the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

File:Camillus-aqueduct1.JPG, built in 1841 and abandoned {{circa|1918}}; one of 32 navigable aqueducts on the Erie Canal, it has since been restored.]]The original design planned for an annual tonnage of 1.5 million tons (1.36 million metric tons), but this was exceeded immediately. Such high levels of traffic along the canal caused increasing deterioration of the canal walls, requiring maintenance and improvement. Around 1833, many locks and aqueducts were found to be in need of replacing.{{Cite book |last=Whitford |first=Noble E. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006087442&seq=168 |title=History of the Canal System of the State of New York Together with Brief Histories of the Canals of the United States and Canada |publisher=Brandow Printing Company |year=1906 |location=Albany, NY |pages=132}} An ambitious program to improve the canal began in 1834, partially as a result of the need for repairs to infrastructure, but mostly because of extreme crowding particularly on the eastern portion of the canal. During this massive series of construction projects, known as the First Enlargement, the canal was widened from {{convert|40|to|70|ft|m}} and deepened from {{convert|4|to|7|ft|m}}.{{Cite web |title=Historical Context: Enlarging and Improving the Canal :: Consider The Source Online |url=https://considerthesourceny.org/using-primary-sources/erie-canal-new-yorks-gift-nation/chapter-6-enlarging-and-maintaining-erie-canal/historical-context-enlarging-and-improving-canal |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=considerthesourceny.org}} Locks were widened, doubled, and/or rebuilt in new locations, and many new navigable aqueducts were constructed. The canal was straightened and slightly re-routed in some stretches, resulting in the abandonment of short segments of the original 1825 canal. The First Enlargement was declared to be completed in 1862 after economic struggles,{{Cite web |title=History of the canal system of the State of New York together with brief histories of the canals of the United States and Canada / by Noble E. Whitford v.1. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006087442&seq=169 |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=HathiTrust |page=257 |language=en}} with further minor enlargements in later decades.{{Cite web |title=History of the canal system of the State of New York together with brief histories of the canals of the United States and Canada / by Noble E. Whitford v.1. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006087442&seq=297 |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=HathiTrust |pages=262-263 |language=en}}

File:Water Level Route on US map cropped.png (purple), West Shore Railroad (red) and Erie Canal (blue)]]

{{more citations needed section|date=October 2022}}

The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad opened in 1837, providing a bypass to the slowest part of the canal between Albany and Schenectady. 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. As the railroad served the same general route as the canal, but provided for faster travel, passengers soon switched to it. However, as late as 1852, the canal carried thirteen times more freight tonnage than all the railroads in New York State combined. 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, it went bankrupt and was acquired the next year by the New York Central.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

In 1880s, the canal was struggling to remain competitive with the railroads.{{Cite web |title=Erie Canal |url=https://buffaloah.com/h/erieC/percy/percy.html |access-date=2025-05-16 |website=buffaloah.com}} The NY State Legislature passed an amendment to the state constitution allowing for the end of toll on the canal in 1881 and 1882. In 1882, the amendment was approved by voters, and on January 1, 1883 the new amendment went into effect, ending the charging of tolls along the NY State canals.{{Cite book |last=Whitford |first=Noble E. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006087442&seq=356&q1=1882 |title=History of the Canal System of the State of New York Together with Brief Histories of the Canals of the United States and Canada |publisher=Brandow Printing Company |year=1906 |location=Albany, NY |pages=316}}

File:Erie Canal Lift Bridge Lockport July 2010.JPG in Lockport, New York, July 2010]]

File:BaldwinsvilleLock24.jpg.]]

In a November 3, 1903 referendum, a majority of New Yorkers authorized an expansion of the canal at a cost of $101,000,000.{{Cite journal |last=Fairlie |first=John A. |date=1904 |title=Canal Enlargement in New York State |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1882790 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=286–292 |doi=10.2307/1882790 |jstor=1882790 |issn=0033-5533|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite news |date=1903 |title=GREAT MAJORITY FOR CANAL PROJECT; Estimated That It Will Reach Nearly 250,000. Opposition Up State Not Sufficient to Overcome the Heavy Vote in New York, Kings and Erie -- The Vote by Counties. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1903/11/04/archives/great-majority-for-canal-project-estimated-that-it-will-reach.html |work=New York Times}}{{Cite book |title=History of the Barge Canal of New York State |last=Whiteford |first=Noble E. |year=1922 |publisher=J. B. Lyon Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-FIAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA14 |access-date=February 7, 2008}}{{rp|14}}

In 1905, construction of the New York State Barge Canal began, which was completed in 1918, at a cost of $96.7 million.{{rp|557}}

This new canal replaced much of the original route, leaving many abandoned sections (most notably between Syracuse and Rome). New digging and flood control technologies allowed engineers to canalize rivers that the original canal had sought to avoid, such as the Mohawk, Seneca, and Clyde rivers, and Oneida Lake.{{Cite web |title=History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925 — Chapter 99: History of the New York State Barge Canal. |url=https://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/mvgw/history/099.html |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=www.schenectadyhistory.org}} In sections that did not consist of canalized rivers (particularly between Rochester and Buffalo), the original Erie Canal channel was enlarged to {{convert|120|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|12|ft|m}} deep. The expansion allowed barges up to {{convert|2000|ST|t}} to use the Canal. The new Barge Canal required boats to be propelled by tugs or other mechanical means, as there was no longer a towpath along the system for animal power to tow barges.{{Cite book |last=FINCH |first=ROY G. |url=https://history.nycourts.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/finch_history.pdf |title=The Story of the New York State Canals: Historical and Commercial Information |pages=21}} This expensive expansion project was politically unpopular in parts of the state not served by the canal. Following the opening of the barge canal, there was a resurgence in use for some industries and commercial shipping along the system peaked in 1951.{{Cite book |last=Stack |first=Debbie |title=The Erie Canal |last2=Marquisee |first2=Ronald S. |date=2001 |publisher=Media Artists Inc |isbn=978-0-9708886-0-0 |series=Cruising America's Waterways |location=Manlius |pages=5}}

Freight traffic reached a total of 5.2 million short tons (4.7 million metric tons) by 1951. The growth of railroads and highways across the state, and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, caused commercial traffic on the canal to decline dramatically during the second half of the 20th century. Since the 1990s, the canal system has been used primarily by recreational traffic.{{Cite news |last=Gargan |first=Edward A. |date=1984-08-08 |title=A NEW DAY'S A-BORNING ON THE SLEEPY ERIE CANAL |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/08/nyregion/a-new-day-s-a-borning-on-the-sleepy-erie-canal.html |access-date=2025-05-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |title=Canal Recreationway Commission |url=https://www.canals.ny.gov/About/Canal-Recreationway-Commission |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=NYS Canals |language=en}}

In 1992, the New York State Barge Canal was renamed the New York State Canal System (including the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca, Oswego, and Champlain canals) and placed under the newly created New York State Canal Corporation, a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority. While part of the Thruway, the canal system was operated using money generated by Thruway tolls. In 2017, the New York State Canal Corporation was transferred from the New York State Thruway to the New York Power Authority.{{cite web|title=N.Y. Power Authority to Assume Ownwership of Canal Corporation on New Year's Day|url=https://www.nypa.gov/news/press-releases/2017/20170102-nypa-canal-corporation|website=www.nypa.gov|access-date=26 May 2018|language=en}}

In 2000, Congress designated the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, covering {{convert|524|mi|km}} of navigable water from Lake Champlain to the Capital Region and west to Buffalo.{{cite web |url=http://www.eriecanalway.org |title=Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor |access-date=September 25, 2012}} The area has a population of 2.7 million; about 75% of Central and Western New York's population lives within {{convert|25|mi|km}} of the Erie Canal.{{cite web |url=https://thegreateriecanal.weebly.com|title=The Erie Canal |access-date=February 20, 2025}}

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 new growth in commercial traffic is due to the rising cost of diesel fuel. Canal barges can carry a short ton of cargo {{convert|514|mi}} on one gallon of diesel fuel, while a gallon allows a train to haul the same amount of cargo {{convert|202|mi}} and a truck {{convert|59|mi}}. Canal barges can carry loads up to {{convert|3000|ST|LT}}, and are used to transport objects that would be too large for road or rail shipment. In 2012, the New York State Canal System as a whole was used to ship 42,000 tons of cargo.New York State Canal Corporation, [http://www.canals.ny.gov/economic-benefit-report.pdf Report on Economic Benefits of Non‐Tourism Use of the NYS Canal System]

{{maplink|frame=yes|frame-align=right|frame-width=400|frame-height=200|text=The Erie Canal after the First Great Enlargement|from=Original Erie Canal.map|zoom=6|frame-lat=42.977|frame-long=-76.506}}

The Erie made use of the favorable conditions of New York's unique topography, which provided that area with the only break in the Appalachians south of the St. Lawrence River. The Hudson is tidal to Troy, and Albany is west of the Appalachians. It allowed for east–west navigation from the coast to the Great Lakes within US territory.{{cite web|url=http://www.history.rochester.edu/canal/bib/whitford/1906/Chap01.html |title=Whitford's History of New York Canals. Chapter I, First Attempts at Improvement |access-date=March 21, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226053046/http://www.history.rochester.edu/canal/bib/whitford/1906/Chap01.html |archive-date=December 26, 2008 |df=mdy }}

The canal began on the west side of the Hudson River at Albany, and ran north to Watervliet, where the Champlain Canal branched off. At Cohoes, it climbed the escarpment on the west side of the Hudson River—16 locks rising {{convert|140|ft}}—and then turned west along the south shore of the Mohawk River, crossing to the north side at Crescent and again to the south at Rexford. The canal continued west near the south shore of the Mohawk River all the way to Rome, where the Mohawk turns north.

At Rome, the canal continued west parallel to Wood Creek, which flows westward into Oneida Lake, and turned southwest and west cross-country to avoid the lake. From Canastota west, it ran roughly along the north (lower) edge of the Onondaga Escarpment, passing through Syracuse, Onondaga Lake, and Rochester. Before reaching Rochester, the canal uses a series of natural ridges to cross the deep valley of Irondequoit Creek. At Lockport the canal turned southwest to rise to the top of the Niagara Escarpment, using the ravine of Eighteen Mile Creek.

The canal continued south-southwest to Pendleton, where it turned west and southwest, mainly using the channel of Tonawanda Creek. From the Tonawanda south toward Buffalo, it ran just east of the Niagara River, where it reached its "Western Terminus" at Little Buffalo Creek (later it became the Commercial Slip), which discharged into the Buffalo River just above its confluence with Lake Erie. 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. With several miles of the Canal inland of this location still lying under 20th-century fill and urban construction, the effective western navigable terminus of the Erie Canal is found at Tonawanda.

File:Sunset over the Erie Canal in North Tonawanda, NY..jpg, about {{convert|1000|ft|m}} from the present-day western terminus of the Erie Canal where it connects to the Niagara River]]

The new alignment began on the Hudson River at the border between Cohoes and Waterford, where it ran northwest with five locks (the so-called "Waterford Flight"), running into the Mohawk River east of Crescent. The Waterford Flight is claimed to be one of the steepest series of locks in the world.{{cite web|title=Dedication of the Flight of Five Locks as a Civil Engineering Landmark (9/9/2012) |url=http://rpiasce.weebly.com/recent-asce-events.html |work=ASCE Rennselaer |publisher=American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), RPI Chapter |access-date=March 2, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216071318/http://rpiasce.weebly.com/recent-asce-events.html |archive-date=December 16, 2013 }}{{rp|19}}{{rp|267}}

While the old Canal ran next to the Mohawk all the way to Rome, the new canal ran through the river, which was straightened or widened where necessary.{{rp|13}} At Ilion, the new canal left the river for good, but continued to run on a new alignment parallel to both the river and the old canal to Rome. From Rome, the new route continued almost due west, merging with Fish Creek just east of its entry into Oneida Lake.

From Oneida Lake, the new canal ran west along the Oneida River, with cutoffs to shorten the route. At Three Rivers, the Oneida River turns northwest, and was deepened for the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario. The new Erie Canal turned south there along the Seneca River, which turns west near Syracuse and continues west to a point in the Montezuma Marsh. There the Cayuga and Seneca Canal continued south with the Seneca River, and the new Erie Canal again ran parallel to the old canal along the bottom of the Niagara Escarpment, in some places running along the Clyde River, and in some places replacing the old canal. At Pittsford, southeast of Rochester, the canal turned west to run around the south side of Rochester, rather than through downtown. The canal crosses the Genesee River at the Genesee Valley Park, then rejoins the old path near North Gates.

From there it was again roughly an upgrade to the original canal, running west to Lockport. This reach of {{convert|64.2|mi}} from Henrietta to Lockport is called "the 60‑mile level" since there are no locks and the water level rises only {{convert|2|ft|spell=in}} over the entire segment. Diversions from and to adjacent natural streams along the way are used to maintain the canal's level. It runs southwest to Tonawanda, where the new alignment discharges into the Niagara River, which is navigable upstream to the New York Barge Canal's Black Rock Lock and thence to the Canal's original "Western Terminus" at Buffalo's Inner Harbor.

File:Lockport bartlett color crop.jpg, in 1839]]

Canal boats up to {{convert|3.5|ft|m}} in draft were pulled by horses and mules walking on the towpath. The canal had one towpath, generally on the north side. When canal boats met, the boat with the right of way remained on the towpath side of the canal. The other boat steered toward the berm (or heelpath) side of the canal. The driver (or "hoggee", pronounced HO-gee) of the privileged boat kept his towpath team by the canalside edge of the towpath, while the hoggee of the other boat moved to the outside of the towpath and stopped his team. His towline would be unhitched from the horses, go slack, fall into the water and sink to the bottom, while his boat coasted with its remaining momentum. The privileged boat's team would step over the other boat's towline, with its horses pulling the boat over the sunken towline without stopping. Once clear, the other boat's team would continue on its way.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Pulled by teams of horses, canal boats moved slowly, but methodically, shrinking time and distance. Efficiently, the smooth, nonstop method of transportation cut the travel time between Albany and Buffalo nearly in half, moving by day and by night. Migrants took passage on freight boats, camping on deck or on top of crates.{{Cite book|last=Sheriff|first=Carol|title=The artificial river: the Erie Canal and the paradox of progress, 1817-1862|date=1997|publisher=Hill and Wang|isbn=0-8090-1605-2|location=New York|pages=54|oclc=37690680}}

File:Nearing the Bend by Edward Lamson Henry, pencil and watercolor.jpg, {{circa|1900}}]]

Packet boats, serving passengers exclusively, reached speeds of up to {{convert|5|mph|spell=in}} and ran at much more frequent intervals than the cramped, bumpy stagecoach wagons.{{Cite book|title=The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress 1817–1862|last=Sheriff|first=Carol|publisher=Hill & Wang|year=1996|isbn=978-0-8090-2753-8|url=https://archive.org/details/artificialrivere00sher|url-access=registration}}{{rp|54}} These boats, measuring up to {{convert|78|ft|m}} long and {{convert|14.5|ft|m}} wide, made ingenious use of space, accommodating up to 40 passengers at night and up to three times as many in the daytime.{{rp|59}} The best examples, furnished with carpeted floors, stuffed chairs, and mahogany tables stocked with books and current newspapers, served as sitting rooms during the days. At mealtimes, crews transformed the cabin into a dining room. Drawing a curtain across the width of the room divided the cabin into ladies' and gentlemen's sleeping quarters at night. Pull-down tiered beds folded from the walls, and additional cots could be hung from hooks in the ceiling. Some captains hired musicians and held dances.{{rp|59}}

In 1858, the New York State Legislature debated closing the locks of the Erie Canal on Sundays. However, George Jeremiah and Dwight Bacheller, two of the bill's opponents, argued that the state had no right to stop canal traffic on the grounds that the Erie Canal and its tributaries had ceased to be wards of the state. The canal at its inception had been imagined as an extension of nature, an artificial river where there had been none. The canal succeeded by sharing more in common with lakes and seas than it had with public roads. Jeremiah and Bacheller argued, successfully, that just as it was unthinkable to halt oceangoing navigation on Sunday, so it was with the canal.{{rp|172}}

{{more citations needed section|date=November 2012}}

File:Erie Canal at Salina Street, Syracuse.jpg in Syracuse {{circa|1904}}]]

File:Rochester erie canal aqueduct circa 1890.jpg {{circa|1890}}]]

File:The history and topography of the United States of America (1850) (14594494448) (cropped).jpg, a popular scenic stop]]

The Erie Canal greatly lowered the cost of shipping between the Midwest and the Northeast, bringing much lower food costs to Eastern cities and allowing the East to ship machinery and manufactured goods to the Midwest more economically. To give an example, the cost to transport a barrel of flour from Rochester to Albany dropped from $3 (before the canal) to 75¢ on the canal.{{cite book |title=Floating West: The Erie and Other American Canals|last=Bourne |first=Russell|year=1992 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|page=123}} The canal also made an immense contribution to the wealth and importance of New York City, Buffalo and New York State. Its impact went much further, increasing trade throughout the nation by opening eastern and overseas markets to Midwestern farm products and by enabling migration to the West.{{cite book |title=The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860 |last=Taylor |first=George Rogers |isbn=978-0-87332-101-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHonAQAAIAAJ |year=1977 |orig-date=1951 |publisher=Routledge (originally published by M.E. Sharpe)}}

{{cite book |title=The Economic Growth of the United States 1790–1860 |last=North |first=Douglas C. |year=1966 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York, London |isbn=978-0-393-00346-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/economicgrowthof00doug }}

{{Cite web|title=Salt in Syracuse that dug the canal · Economic effects of Erie Canal on Western New York (1825–1850) · Young American Republic|url=http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/youngamerica/exhibits/show/econeriecanal/salt-in-syracuse-that-dug-the-|access-date=2020-11-10|website=projects.leadr.msu.edu}}{{Cite news|title=Brine, Boats & Bureaucrats: Salt and the Erie Canal|url=https://www.cnyhistory.org/programs/brine-boats-bureaucrats-salt-erie-canal/|access-date=2020-11-10|website=Onondaga Historical Association|language=en-US}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/nyregion/history-of-the-erie-canal.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/nyregion/history-of-the-erie-canal.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited|title=200 Years Ago, Erie Canal Got Its Start as Just a 'Ditch' |first=Sam|last=Roberts|date=June 26, 2017 |work=The New York Times|access-date=July 25, 2017}}{{cbignore}} The port of New York became essentially the Atlantic home port for all of the Midwest. Because of this vital connection and others to follow, such as the railroads, New York would become known as the "Empire State" or "the great Empire State".

The Erie Canal was an immediate success. Tolls collected on freight had already exceeded the state's construction debt in its first year of official operation.{{rp|52}} 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.{{Cite book|title=Fordham: A history of the Jesuit university of New York: 841–2003|last=Shelley|first=Thomas|publisher=Fordham University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780823271511|location=New York|page=51|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RvsmDAAAQBAJ}} Additionally, New York State's initial loan for the original canal had been paid by 1837.{{rp|52}} Although it had been envisioned as primarily a commercial channel for freight boats, passengers also traveled on the canal's packet boats. In 1825 more than 40,000 passengers took advantage of the convenience and beauty of canal travel.{{rp|52}} The canal's steady flow of tourists, businessmen and settlers lent it to uses never imagined by its initial sponsors. Evangelical preachers made their circuits of the upstate region, and the canal served as the last leg of the Underground Railroad ferrying freedom seekers to Buffalo near the Canada–US border.{{rp|53}} Aspiring merchants found that tourists were reliable customers. Vendors moved from boat to boat peddling items such as books, watches and fruit, while less scrupulous "confidence men" sold remedies for foot corns or passed off counterfeit bills.{{rp|53}} Tourists were carried along the "northern tour," which ultimately led to the popular honeymoon destination Niagara Falls, just north of Buffalo.

As the canal brought travelers to New York City, it took business away from other ports such as Philadelphia and Baltimore. Those cities and their states started projects to compete with the Erie Canal. 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. 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.

The canal played a major role in the growth of Standard Oil, as founder John D. Rockefeller 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 the winter months his only options were the three trunk lines: the Erie Railroad, the New York Central Railroad, or the Pennsylvania Railroad.{{cite book|last=Hawke|first=David Freeman|title=John D. The Founding Father of the Rockefellers|publisher=Harper & Row|date=1980|isbn=978-0060118136|url=https://archive.org/details/johndfoundingfa00hawk}}

New ethnic Irish communities formed in some towns along its route after completion, as Irish immigrants were a large portion of the construction labor force.{{Cite web|title=Ohio and Erie Canal Historic District:Ohio and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary|url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/ohioeriecanal/TextOnly.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226113452/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/ohioeriecanal/TextOnly.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 26, 2008|access-date=2021-07-21|website=www.nps.gov}} A plaque honoring the canal's construction is located in Battery Park in southern Manhattan.{{Cite web|title=The Battery Monuments : NYC Parks|url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/battery-park/monuments|access-date=2021-07-21|website=www.nycgovparks.org}}

Because so many immigrants traveled on the canal, many genealogists have sought copies of canal passenger lists. Apart from the years 1827–1829, canal boat operators were not required to record passenger names or report them to the New York government. Some passenger lists survive today in the New York State Archives, and other sources of traveler information are sometimes available.{{Cite web|last=Burke Lyttle|first=Annette|date=2019|title='The Marriage of the Waters': The Erie Canal and the Opening of the Midwest|url=https://www.scgsgenealogy.com/webinar/media/190515handout.pdf|access-date=July 21, 2021|archive-date=July 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721175252/https://www.scgsgenealogy.com/webinar/media/190515handout.pdf|url-status=dead}}

The canal allowed Buffalo to grow from just 200 settlers in 1820 to more than 18,000 people by 1840. Immense population growth was seen across the Upstate NY cities that touched the Erie Canal within the first decade after the waterway's 1825 opening, including Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Lockport.{{Cite web |title=Historical Context: The Maker of Cities :: Consider The Source Online |url=https://considerthesourceny.org/using-primary-sources/erie-canal-new-yorks-gift-nation/chapter-8-erie-canal-and-urban-development/historical-context-maker-cities |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=considerthesourceny.org}}

File:Low Bridge, Everybody Down (sheet music cover) (cropped).jpg"]]

The Canal also helped bind the still-new nation closer to Britain and Europe. Repeal of Britain's Corn Law resulted in a huge increase in exports of Midwestern wheat to Britain. Trade between the United States and Canada also increased as a result of the repeal and a reciprocity (free-trade) agreement signed in 1854. Much of this trade flowed along the Erie.

Its success also prompted imitation: a rash of canal-building followed. Also, the many technical hurdles that had to be overcome made heroes of those whose innovations made the canal possible. This led to an increased public esteem for practical education. Chicago, among other Great Lakes cities, recognized the importance of the canal to its economy, and two West Loop streets are named "Canal" and "Clinton" (for canal proponent DeWitt Clinton).

Concern that erosion caused by logging in the Adirondacks could silt up the canal contributed to the creation in 1885 of another New York National Historic Landmark, the Adirondack Park.

Many notable authors wrote about the canal, including Herman Melville, Frances Trollope, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Samuel Hopkins Adams and the Marquis de Lafayette, and many tales and songs were written about life on the canal. The popular song "Low Bridge, Everybody Down" by Thomas S. Allen was written in 1905 to memorialize the canal's early heyday, when barges were pulled by mules rather than engines.

Consisting of a massive stone aqueduct that carried boats over incredible cascades, Little Falls was one of the most popular stops for American and foreign tourists. This is shown in Scene 4 of William Dunlap's play A Trip to Niagara, where he depicts the general preference of tourists to travel by canal so that they could experience a combination of artificial and natural sights.{{rp|55}} Canal travel was, for many, an opportunity to take in the sublime and commune with nature. The play also reflects the less enthusiastic view of some who saw movement on the canal as tedious.

The Erie Canal changed property law in New York. Most importantly, it expanded the government's right to take private property. Cases surrounding the newly built Erie Canal expanded condemnation theory to permit canal builders to appropriate private land and broadened the meaning of "public use" in the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The canal also had an impact on water access jurisprudence as well as nuisance law.Leah Moren Green, The Erie Canal and the American Imagination: The Erie Canal's Effects on American Legal Development, 1817-1869, 56 ALA. L. REV. 1167 (2005).

File:Canal tour boat.jpg Lock 24.]]

File:Erie Canal (2).jpg

Today, the Erie Canal is used primarily by recreational vessels, though it remains served by several commercial barge-towing companies.{{Cite web |url=http://www.canals.ny.gov/business/shipping.html |title=Commercial Shipping and Towing - New York State Canals |website=www.canals.ny.gov |access-date=2019-01-24}}

The canal is open to small craft and some larger vessels from May through November each year. During winter, water is drained from parts of the canal for maintenance. The Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain, and the Chambly Canal, and Richelieu River in Canada form the Lakes to Locks Passage, making a tourist attraction of the former waterway linking eastern Canada to the Erie Canal.{{Cite web |title=Lakes to Locks Passage |url=https://nsbfoundation.com/nb/lakes-to-locks-passage/ |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=National Scenic Byway Foundation |language=en-US}} In 2006 recreational boating fees were suspended to attract more visitors.{{Cite web |date=2006-03-23 |title=No Tolls for Boaters on the Erie Canal. |url=https://www.wbfo.org/2006-03-23/no-tolls-for-boaters-on-the-erie-canal |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=WBFO |agency=Associated Press}}

The Erie Canal is a destination for tourists from all over the world, and has inspired guidebooks dedicated to exploration of the waterway.{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Deborah|title=Erie Canal : exploring New York's great canals : a complete guide|date=2009|publisher=Countryman Press|location=Woodstock, Vt.|isbn=978-1-58157-080-9|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HxaW7ZAXOP4C}}{{cite book|title=Cycling the Erie Canal: A Guide to 400 Miles of Adventure and History Along the Erie Canalway Trail|date=2015|publisher=Parks & Trails New York|isbn=9780974827735|edition=Revised}} An Erie Canal Cruise company, based in Herkimer, operates from mid-May until mid-October with daily cruises. The cruise goes through the history of the canal and also takes passengers through Lock 18.{{Cite web|url=https://eriecanalcruises.com/schedule-rates/|title=Schedule & Rates|website=Erie Canal Cruises|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-03}}{{Cite web|title=Erie Canal Boat Rides & Tours|url=https://eriecanalcruises.com/cruises/|access-date=2022-02-21|website=Erie Canal Cruises|language=en-US}}

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.

File:Canalside, Buffalo, New York, June 2015 - 04.jpg, a re-created segment of the Old Erie Canal in Buffalo]]

File:Erie Canal - Second Genesee Aqueduct (aka Broad Street Bridge) 03.jpg in Rochester carried the Rochester Subway and now carries Broad Street.]]

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. 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).{{Cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/vinylboy20/14342144437/|title=Clintons Ditch (1)|date=June 14, 2014|via=Flickr}}

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. Many stretches of the old canal have been filled in to create roads such as Erie Boulevard in Syracuse and Schenectady, and Broad Street and the Rochester Subway in Rochester. A 36‑mile (58 km) stretch of the old canal from the town of DeWitt, New York, east of Syracuse, to just outside Rome, New York, is preserved as the Old Erie Canal State Historic Park. 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.National Park Service, [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nhl/designations/Lists/NY01.pdf National Historic Landmarks Survey, New York] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922201700/http://www.cr.nps.gov/nhl/designations/Lists/NY01.pdf |date=September 22, 2013 }}, retrieved May 30, 2007.

Some municipalities have preserved sections as town or county canal parks, or have plans to do so. Camillus Erie Canal Park preserves a {{convert|7|mi|km|adj=on}} stretch and has restored Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct, built in 1841 as part of the First Enlargement of the canal.Camillus Erie Canal Park, [http://eriecanalcamillus.com/aqueduct.htm Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct], retrieved January 4, 2012. In some communities, the old canal has refilled with overgrowth and debris. Proposals have been made to rehydrate the old canal through downtown Rochester or Syracuse as a tourist attraction. In Syracuse, the location of the old canal is represented by a reflecting pool in downtown's Clinton Square and the downtown hosts a canal barge and weigh lock structure, now dry.{{Cite web |title=Explore Nearby |url=https://eriecanalmuseum.org/visit/explore/ |access-date=2022-09-09 |website=Erie Canal Museum |language=en-US}} Buffalo's Commercial Slip is the restored and re-watered segment of the canal which formed its "Western Terminus".

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. After an investigation by the Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper, the Pataki administration nullified the deal.{{Cite web|url=https://ig.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/Joint%20Investigation%20Into%20Ethical%20Lapses%20at%20State%20Canal%20Corporation,%20November%202004.pdf|title=A Joint Investigation into the Contract Between the New York State Canal Corporation and Richard A. Hutchens CC, LLC|date=November 2004|website=New York State Inspector General|access-date=July 23, 2018|archive-date=December 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228102424/https://ig.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/Joint%20Investigation%20Into%20Ethical%20Lapses%20at%20State%20Canal%20Corporation,%20November%202004.pdf|url-status=dead}}

File:Port Byron Old Erie Canal Heritage Park - 20210522 - 02.jpg in Port Byron]]

File:Old Erie Canal State Park.jpg in DeWitt]]

Parks and museums related to the Old Erie Canal include (listed from east to west):

• Day Peckinpaugh ship; restoration and conversion to a floating museum was planned for completion in 2012 by the New York State Museum
• Watervliet Side Cut Locks, located at Watervliet and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971
• Enlarged Erie Canal Historic District (Discontiguous), a national historic district located at Cohoes, New York listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004{{NRISref|2009a|dateform=mdy}}
• Cohoes Falls Park, 231 N. Mohawk St., Cohoes, New York, offers, looking away from the river, a dramatic view of abandoned and dry Erie Canal lock 18, high above.
• Enlarged Double Lock No. 23, Old Erie Canal, Rotterdam
• Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site at Fort Hunter
• Old Erie Canal State Historic Park, 36-mile linear park from Rome to DeWitt
• Erie Canal Village, near Rome
• Canastota Canal Town Museum, Canastota
• Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum, near Chittenango
• Erie Canal Museum in downtown Syracuse
• Camillus Erie Canal Park in Camillus
• Jordan Canal Park in Jordan, town of Elbridge
• Enlarged Double Lock No. 33 Old Erie Canal, St. Johnsville
• Erie Canal Lock 52 Complex, a national historic district located within the Old Erie Canal Heritage Park at Port Byron and Mentz in Cayuga County; listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998
• Seneca River Crossing Canals Historic District, a national historic district located at Montezuma and Tyre in Cayuga County; listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005
• Centerport Aqueduct Park near Weedsport; listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000
• Lock Berlin Park near Clyde
• Macedon Aqueduct Park near Palmyra
• Old Erie Canal Lock 60 Park in Macedon
• Perinton Park in Perinton near Fairport
• Genesee Valley Park in the city of Rochester
• Spencerport Depot & Canal Museum, Spencerport
• Niagara Escarpment "Flight of Five" locks at Lockport
• Erie Canal Discovery Center, 24 Church Street, Lockport (Locks 34 and 35)
• Canalside Buffalo at the Canal's "Western Terminus"

{{main|New York State Canalway Trail}}

Records of the planning, funding, design, construction, and administration of the Erie Canal are vast and can be found in the New York State Archives. Except for two years (1827–1829), the State of New York did not require canal boat operators to maintain or submit passenger lists.{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_trans_recrds.shtml |title=Guide to Canal Records |publisher=New York State Archives |access-date=January 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207162419/http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_trans_recrds.shtml |archive-date=December 7, 2008 |url-status=dead}}

File:Erie Canal, Lock 32.jpg]]

File:ErieCanalLock03679.jpg]]

The following list of locks is provided for the current canal, from east to west. There are a total of 36 (35 numbered) locks on the Erie Canal.

All locks on the New York State Canal System are single-chamber; the dimensions are {{convert|328|ft|m}} long and {{convert|45|ft|m}} wide with a minimum {{convert|12|ft|m|adj=on}} depth of water over the miter sills at the upstream gates upon lift. They can accommodate a vessel up to {{convert|300|ft|m}} long and {{convert|43.5|ft|m}} wide.[http://www.canals.ny.gov/maps/index.html New York State Canal Corporation – Canal Map, New York State Canals], Retrieved January 26, 2015.[http://www.canals.ny.gov/about/faqs.html#6 New York State Canal Corporation – Frequently Asked Questions], Retrieved January 26, 2015.[http://www.eriecanal.org/locks.html The Erie Canal – Locks], Retrieved January 26, 2015.{{Self-published inline|date=March 2021}} Overall sidewall height will vary by lock, ranging between {{convert|28|and|61|ft|m}} depending on the lift and navigable stages. Lock E17 at Little Falls has the tallest sidewall height at {{convert|80|ft|m}}.[http://www.eriecanal.org/texts/Whitford/1921/chap23.html The Erie Canal, History of the Barge Canal of New York State by Noble E. Whitford, 1921, Chapter 23], Retrieved January 28, 2015.

Distance is based on position markers from an interactive canal map provided online by the New York State Canal Corporation and may not exactly match specifications on signs posted along the canal. Mean surface elevations are comprised from a combination of older canal profiles and history books as well as specifications on signs posted along the canal.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/201433?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Wilfred H. Schoff, The New York State Barge Canal, 1915, American Geographical Society, Vol. 47, No. 7, p. 498], Retrieved January 26, 2015.[http://www.eriecanal.org/images/misc/canal_profile.jpg The Erie Canal – Canal Profiles], Retrieved January 6, 2015. The margin of error should normally be within {{convert|6|in|cm}}.

The Waterford Flight series of locks (comprising Locks E2 through E6) is one of the steepest in the world, lifting boats {{convert|169|ft|m}} in less than {{convert|2|mi|km}}.{{rp|19}}{{rp|267}}

All surface elevations are approximate.

{{asterisk}} Denotes federally managed locks.

There is a {{convert|2|ft|m|adj=on}} natural rise between locks E33 and E34 as well as a {{convert|1.5|ft|m|adj=on}} natural rise between Lock E35 and the Niagara River.

There is no Lock E1 or Lock E31 on the Erie Canal. The place of "Lock E1" on the passage from the lower Hudson River to Lake Erie is taken by the Troy Federal Lock, located just north of Troy, New York, and is not part of the Erie Canal System proper. It is operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Erie Canal officially begins at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers at Waterford, New York.

Although the original alignment of the Erie Canal through Buffalo has been filled in, travel by water is still possible from Buffalo via the Black Rock Lock in the Niagara River to the canal's modern western terminus in Tonawanda, and eastward to Albany. The Black Rock Lock is operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Oneida Lake lies between locks E22 and E23, and has a mean surface elevation of {{convert|370|ft|m}}. Lake Erie has a mean surface elevation of {{convert|571|ft|m}}.

• Robert C. Dorn
• List of canals in New York
• List of canals in the United States
• "Low Bridge", a song written by Thomas S. Allen, also known as "The Erie Canal Song"
• John C. Mather (New York politician)
• Ohio and Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River
• Welland Canal, opened in 1829, bypasses the Niagara River between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario

{{clear}}

{{Reflist|22em}}

• {{cite book |last=Bangs |first=Jeremy D. |year=2015 |title=The Travels of Elkanah Watson |location=Jefferson, N.C. |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=9781476662459 |oclc=908375479}}
• {{cite book |last1=Bernstein |first1=Peter L. |date=2005 |title=Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation |url=https://archive.org/details/weddingofwaters00pete |url-access=registration |edition=1st|publisher=Norton |location=New York [u.a.] |isbn=978-0-393-05233-6}}
• {{cite book |last1=Erie Canal Museum |last2=Morganstein |first2=Martin |last3=Cregg |first3=Joan H. |date=2001 |title=Erie Canal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UY_IswcYwvoC |location=Charleston, S.C. |publisher=Arcadia Pub. Co. |isbn=978-0738508696}}
• {{cite book |last=Finch |first=Roy G. |year=1925 |title=The Story of the New York State Canals: Historical and Commercial Information |url=http://www.canals.ny.gov/history/finch_history.pdf |publisher=New York State Canal Corporation |oclc=1038442328 |access-date=March 9, 2013}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Hecht|editor1-first=Roger W. |date=2003 |title=The Erie Canal Reader, 1790–1950 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTP39SRHlc4C |edition=1st |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=9780815607595 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Keene |first1=Michael |date=2016 |title=The Psychic Highway: How the Erie Canal Changed America |location=Fredericksburg, Va. |publisher=Willow Manor Publishing |isbn=9781939688323}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=Jack |date=2016 |title=Heaven's Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=9781137280091}}
• {{cite book | last=Koch | first=Daniel | title=Land of the Oneidas: Central New York State and the Creation of America | publisher=SUNY Press | date=2023-04-01 | isbn=978-1-4384-9270-4}}
• {{cite book |last=Koeppel |first=Gerard |year=2009 |title=Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire |location=Cambridge, Mass. |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-81827-1}}
• {{cite book |last=McGreevy |first=Patrick |year=2009 |title=Stairway to Empire: Lockport, the Erie Canal, and the Shaping of America |location=Albany, N.Y. |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-1-4384-2527-6}} [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=25693 Online review].
• {{cite book |last1=Panagopoulos |first1=Janie Lynn |date=1995 |title=Erie Trail West: A Dream-Quest Adventure |location=Spring Lake, MI |publisher=River Road Publications |isbn=978-0-938682-35-6}}
• {{cite book |last=Papp |first=John P. |year=1977 |title=Erie Canal Days: A Pictorial Essay: Albany to Buffalo |location=Schenectady, N.Y. |publisher=John Papp Historical Publications |oclc=3863574}}
• {{cite book |last1=Reisem|first1=Richard O. |date=2000 |title=Erie Canal Legacy: Architectural Treasures of the Empire State |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Vk66OEoLzsC |location=Rochester, N.Y. |publisher=Landmark Society of Western New York |isbn=978-0964170667}}
• {{cite book |last=Shaw |first=Ronald E. |year=1990 |orig-date=1966 |title=Erie Water West: A History of the Erie Canal, 1792–1854 |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;view=toc;idno=heb00577.0001.001 |edition=Reprint |location=Lexington, Ky. |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=9780813143477 |oclc=929658651}}
• {{cite book |last=Sheriff |first=Carol |year=1996 |title=The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817–1862 |location=New York |publisher=Hill and Wang |isbn=978-0-8090-2753-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/artificialrivere00sher }}
• {{cite book |last1=Stack |first1=Debbie Daino |last2=Cuomo |first2=Captain Ronald S. Marquisee |others=Foreword by Andrew Cuomo |date=2001 |title=The Erie Canal: Cruising America's Waterways |series=Cruising America's Waterways Series |location=Manlius, N.Y. |publisher=Media Artists Inc |isbn=978-0970888600}}
• {{cite book|last=Utter|first=Brad L.|year=2020|title=Enterprising Waters: The History and Art of New York's Erie Canal|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=9781438478265}}
• {{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Deborah |date=2009|title=Erie Canal: Exploring New York's Great Canals: A Complete Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HxaW7ZAXOP4C |publisher=Countryman Press |location=Woodstock, Vermont |edition=1st |isbn=978-1-58157-080-9}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Wikivoyage}}

• [https://www.worldcat.org/lists/5d8067ca-7e18-4666-af84-1aced864b5f1 Erie & Barge Canal]: A bibliography by the Buffalo History Museum.
• [https://archive.org/details/listing-and-index-canal-maps-plans Listing and index of maps, plans, profiles, pictures, and photographs of canals of New York State in annual reports of State Engineer and Surveyor through 1905]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfXf_xoXs1I Erie Canal case study in Transition Times]. Archived at [http://ghostarchive.org/varchive/BfXf_xoXs1I Ghostarchive].
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130511055150/http://www.nycanals.com/Erie_Canal Information and Boater's Guide to the Erie Canal]
• [http://www.ptny.org/canalway/ Canalway Trail Information]
• [http://www.eriecanal.org/ Historical information (with photos) of the Erie Canal]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg_XCKuwKGc/ Video showing the operations of Lock 22E in 2016].
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070301035647/http://www.nyscanals.gov/ New York State Canal Corporation Site]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080725090537/http://library.gc.cuny.edu/dac/erie_canal/ The Opening of the Erie Canal – An Online Exhibition by CUNY]
• New York Heritage online exhibit - [https://nyheritage.org/exhibits/two-hundred-years-erie-canal Two Hundred Years on the Erie Canal]
• [http://www.canalsnys.org/ The Canal Society of New York State]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20020826052924/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/volpe/canal/ Digging Clinton's Ditch: The Impact of the Erie Canal on America 1807–1860 ] Multimedia
• [http://crookedlakereview.com/articles/67_100/75june1994/75palmer.html A Glimpse at Clinton's Ditch, 1819–1820] by Richard F. Palmer
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081207162419/http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_trans_recrds.shtml Guide to Canal Records in the New York State Archives]
• [http://www.eriecanalmappingproject.com/ The Erie Canal Mapping Project]
• [http://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/srr_ecm New York Heritage – Working on the Erie Canal]
• [http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/pri5554.htm Photographs of the Erie Canal Relating to Fort Hunter, N.Y. Ca. 1910 (finding aid)] at the New York State Library, accessed May 18, 2016.
• [http://www.diggingtheeriecanal.com/Erie_Canal/The_Old_Ditch.html William Jaeger's photography of the Canal remains]. Archived at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20180125020007/http://www.diggingtheeriecanal.com/Erie_Canal/The_Old_Ditch.html Wayback Machine]
• [https://www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/historic-landmarks/erie-canal American Society of Civil Engineers site- The Erie Canal was the world's longest canal and one of America's great engineering feats.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513071636/https://www.asce.org/project/erie-canal/ |date=May 13, 2021 }}
• {{HABS |survey=NY-231 |id=ny0232 |title=Erie Canal Viaduct, Moyer Creek Crossing}}
• {{HABS |survey=NY-6040 |id=ny0575 |title=Erie Canal Locks |link=no}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-6 |id=ny0309 |title=Erie Canal (Enlarged), Schoharie Creek Aqueduct}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-11 |id=ny0027 |title=Erie Canal (Enlarged), Lock Number 18 |link=no}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-12 |id=ny1114 |title=Erie Canal (Enlarged), Upper Mohawk River Aqueduct |link=no}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-16 |id=ny0310 |title=Erie Canal, Yankee Hill Lock Number 28 |link=no}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-17 |id=ny0311 |title=Erie Canal (Enlarged), Empire Lock Number 29 |link=no}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-152 |id=ny1365 |title=Erie Canal (Enlarged), Oothout Culvert & Waste Weir |link=no}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-157 |id=ny1405 |title=Eagle's Nest Creek Culvert |link=no}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-337 |id=ny2030 |title=Erie Canal (Original), Locks 37 & 38 |link=no}}
• {{HAER |survey=NY-545 |id=ny2388 |title=Erie Canal (Original), Lock Number 20 |link=no}}
• {{OSM relation|1823647}}
• [https://www.newspapers.com/topics/westward-expansion/building-of-the-erie-canal/ Newspaper articles and clippings about the Building of the Erie Canal at Newspapers.com]

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