200 years on the Erie Canal 

My family came over from Ireland to dig this canal.

Spent a lot of time fishing the Canal near chittenango

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!

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.

We sang this song many many times in Grade School. Enjoyed this story...

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

was great living near the Eriecanal Born and raised in Medina by the canal. Grandpa worked on the lift bridge

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.

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.

l was born in Venezuela but i love this country like my country God bless USA. Living in Chicago for long time.

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.

My GG grandfather and relatives on both sides worked on or ran boats on the Erie. They lived in Durhamville and Oneida County.

we sang that song 68 years ago in grad school in tennesse

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!!

Anybody watching this who hasn't been there before needs to go to Lockport, NY and go on the Canal tour.

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.

Great engineering achievement. Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations! It' s an admirable venture!

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.

I grew up on this landmark structure as well, just 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.

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.

I live along the Erie Canal in Rochester. Great walking track now

We complain about machine’s we have today to Dig. These ole folks did it by hand 🖐🏻 😱💪🏻🇺🇸

Learned that song as a kid.

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.

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!

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.

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.

My town said it will take 8 years to turn an old rail line into a simple bike path in NJ.

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

I like that someone is digging to make sure that it's deep enough. Americans and their love for their country is amazing.

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.

Happy Birthday Erie Canal

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.

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.

Love these stories...still great news program

It's cool they were able to do all this back in the 1800's, under budget and got it completed in 10 years.

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.

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.

My boyfriend worked 20 years as lock master for the Champlain Locks.

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

Reminds me of the " Canal du Midi" in France, same sort of engineering marvel and achievement. They had big dreams and visions back then.

...kind of sad that today NY Politicians have forgotten about the canal except the high taxes paid by homeowners adjacent to the Canal. THAT was America then....today the most important subject is bi-sexual bathrooms. In Europe a Canal like the Erie would be the center of tourist attraction. We have lost our way folks... This is the new America: Can these Cities be saved: Baltimore MD, Ferguson Mo, Rockford Il, Buffalo NY, Chicago, Camden and Trenton NJ, Burlington NJ, Atlantic City, Atlanta Georgia, Kansas City, Lynn Mass, Stockton Ca, Rochester NY, Suffolk County LI, Cleveland and Akron Ohio, Philadelphia, St Louis, Gary Indiana, Sioux City Iowa, Portland Or, Milwaukee, Wilmington Delaware, Tampa, Charlotte NC, Jacksonville Fl, Sacramento Ca, Richmond Va, Wheeling WV, Memphis and Nashville Tenn, New Orleans, Lake Charles, Shreveport and Baton Rouge La, Jackson Miss, Saginaw Mi, Toledo and Warren Oh, Chester and Allentown Pa, Binghamton and Utica NY, Bridgeport and Waterbury Conn, San Antonio, Corpis Christi, El Paso, Amarillo, Dallas and Fort Worth Tx. Detroit was the canary in the mine signaling the devastation of American cities. Think not? There is nothing on the horizon to turn them around. Lies and denial of the Violence and lawlessness is baked into the mix and no one has the courage to step forward and call the shots. These cities and towns will never recover or rebuild! Despite the appearance of prosperity the undercurrent is apathy, despair and perhaps regret; the legacy of unintended consequences and procrastination. THIS is the new norm! All of America is financialized for the privileged few; lost in digital space.

You can also dock your boat at Richardson's canal house inn located in bushnells basin NY and enjoy a gourmet meal.

On time & under budget ! Imagine that! Lol

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.

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.

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.

Great history, video.

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.

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 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.

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.

And this is why DeWitt Clinton is still remembered, while most other NY governors are quickly forgotten.

We had a canal starting at the bay in Erie, Pa and heading south/west

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.

Do you want to know why it was ahead of schedule and under-budget? Because the government had nothing to do with it.

My dad worked Eastman Kodak but in Texas.i have heard of Rochester my whole life.

I remember singing that song about the Erie Canal in 5th grade in 1965. And, YES, I grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts!👍🤓

It’s a shame that it’s not still in use today

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.

Absolutely incredible engineering achievement. A great shame this isn't more well appreciated.

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

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.

BRAVO ! Well done !

Amazing!! I learned something new today..."Erie canal, is like the internet, for today's time" Remarkable

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).

Our grade school field trip from Clinton NY. Still know all the words.

Excellent video! Was an education for me and makes me want to ride the canal. I guess there is a little Huckleberry Finn in all of us!

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.

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..

I'm getting a very erie feeling about this video

I have always wondered if one could still travel from Eerie to the Hudson via boat today.

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.

This is great history made relevant

4:08 is that a bench table in the water?

Chicken wings at a local bar in Middleport, was one of my favorite stops when I lived in “upstate N.Y.” (Darien Center).

great story..thx

Love the boat at 7:17.

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.

Sick guitar! 🎸

Grew up in Rotterdam and going to watch the boats come through Lock #8

A great story

PLEASE KEEP THEM OPEN AND IN USE

I would ride my bike and run the canal path my whole childhood and teen years.

Why is the canal so polluted?

Erie canal network went all the way to toledo. Didn't stop at buffalo.

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.

Shoutout lock number 24

No way it could be built today, never mind on time and under budget.

I believe the motors that open the canal locks are GE 10hp....