Love it, I grew up in the 1960's and 70's on the western side of syracuse, NY. I lived 1/4 mile from the canal, I swam in it, skated on it, hiked along side it. I remember the winter of 1964 - 65, very cold, little snow we skated for miles...my dad used a David Bradley 2 wheel tractor to plow snow off the canal for skating!!!
I'm utterly exhausted sitting here in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea...from merely LISTENING to all the mental and physical labor that went into the creation of that canal! Thank you for this excellent, clearly-presented video history! It is very very much appreciated!!
I have a mule and her name is Sal. Fifteen years on the Erie Canal.. She's a good old worker and a good old pal. Fifteen years on the Erie Canal. We've hauled some barges in our day filled with lumber, coal, and hay. and every inch of the way we go.....
Find the channel, "Tartarian Truthers". Process at least the first 3 or 4. Then look again at Wiki/Erie Canal - 363 miles, 34 locks, 565 ft rise, the added 64 mile Champlain canal opening on the same date, massive architecture (process the wiki pics), enormous amounts of stone blocks, long and high aqueducts, and all started in 1817 when there was what - maybe six engineers in the entire country - a low population, no steam engines yet, no power tools, basically picks and shovels...see if the ridiculous nature of the canal "story" begins to register...
As a relatively news citizen of Canada(40+ years) this narrative has shown yet again the tenacity of the early settlers of this continent. I thank you for your efforts to enlighten us all. Regards from Canada's banana belt.🤞🇨🇦👍
Thanks for bringing back the blood, sweat, and tears of a slice of history, an engineering marvel that bridged the mountains and claimed the west. Well done!
In 1960 we took a month long boating vacation from our home on Long Is., up the Hudson, down the Mohawk, through the Erie Canal to the Oswego River to Lake Ontario, down the St Lawrence to the Champlain River down through the lake to the Richelieu canal to the headwaters of the Hudson and home. My father wanted to show us the technology of hand operated locks of the Erie Canal vs the St. Lawrence Seaway locks which had just opened. How better then by experience?
Well done kind Sir! I’m a 52 year old very proud born and raised native Buffalonian. Your work here has accurately highlighted the greatness of some of our beloved history. I thank you for sharing.
I thoroughly enjoyed your narration and the visuals of your Erie Canal presentation. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this project. It is as valuable as diamonds and pearls.
Awesome video!!! I grew up in NYS and lived near the canal and never knew until after listening to this why it is called the Empire State. It seems that the old dead politicians of NYS did more for NYS than the present politicians.
Awesome presentation! As a history & geography buff, raised in Brooklyn in 1945-1960, often caught singing “low bridge, everybody down” I’m stricken by how little I knew about the Erie Canal! Thanks, much appreciated.
I have been a canal fan for years and have read numerous books on this topic. Still, I learned some important details and saw some “new” old pictures. Mr. Campbell gives a memorable big picture view of the magnificent triumph of the Erie Canal. Thank you, sir!
My grandfather, in 1900 at the age of 7, led a horse or mule along the towpath from approximately Oriskany where he was born to around Oneida. His mother had just died and his father pulled him out of school to work. He had two older sisters and 4 younger brothers at the time as well as 5 half siblings from two previous marriages where the wives had died. Another marriage and younger sister would follow. Everyone had to work. They grew crops to sell at market and my grandfather delivered milk with horse and cart in the mornings. The older sisters ran a bakery at Sylvan Beach. He became a dairy farmer and died at age 98 in 1992. The family, which started out at Stephentown in Rensselaer Co moved down the canal to Oriskany and Oneida and eventually to Cicero and Fulton, NY. His father, who lost his father in the Civil War at age 7, went to work for the Shakers at Mt. Lebanon to support the family. As it was only recently discovered, the father didn't die in the Civil War but was discharged for dysentery at Ship's Island , LA And made his way back home to a second earlier family across the border in MA at Pittsfield, settling in Columbia Co. NY as a charcoal maker.
One of my direct ancestors helped dig that canal. He was Irish: why do you ask? Great scandal in the family when one of my hard core Scottish ancestors married an Irishman!
I throughly enjoyed this video, hadn't thought about the canal since high school history. It wasn't until now that I realized it's importance to America's development. Thanks!
I have to say, before I actually SAW about 20 miles of the Erie canal, I thought that the whole thing was cement and I thought building over 300 miles of cement canal through virgin forest was impossible to do back in the early 1800's over a seven year time span. NOW, that I've actually SEEN the canal, I realize that the locks were the only part that was cement: all the rest of it was just dug out an filled in with water, so yeah, it was completely feasible to have built over seven years with shovels and so forth. So many people nowadays cannot even fathom digging a basement with shovels prior to building a house, let alone a canal, but I know that's how it used to be done because my ancestors built the house I used to live in and all the houses around that area have basements.
My compliments from west central West Virginia. When I was in grade school, we were all taught that song about the Erie Canal. I dearly hope this work inspires someone to do a study of the canal systems in Ohio.
I loved this, Thank You. I spent a great while in study of the canal, and so enjoyed every word that Walter D. Edmonds ever had in print. My favorite work of his remains "Rome Haul". Thank you again.
Amazing Story that has been overlooked concerning the Marvel known as " Clinton's Ditch ". The success of this Engineering Feat no doubt influences the building of many Cannel Systems throughout the Country; too bad many were abandoned & forgotten over time. Innovations & Fortitude helped in the completion of this wonderful Historic Site. Than you for your great video.
Thank you so much. There can be nothing better than this clear, succinct and carefully documented presentation especially about something so important and overliiked
I have lived near the Erie Canal most of my life.(near Rochester). As a kid it was a favorite playground and even swimming hole. This is an excellent history of the canal. The song Low Bridge was originally 15 Years on the Erie Canal and was a lament for the change to mules to steam. The mules would work on shifts so their distance would vary depending on weather, traffic, and other factors.
Fascinating. I have lived in New York for 35 years and never took a deep dive on the importance of this modern marvel. Looking forward to checking out some of the locks this summer!
Hard to believe I was way up north at Fort Drum, NY near Watertown, NY. I was surprised when I was on my push bike that a branch of the canal went all the way north to that area. Just think could of used boats instead of trains in WW2. Yours truly, Evans W Robinson
Comments from the kids who have watched this tell me our country is in its death throes. Going to the Erie Canal museum in Syracuse was an eye opening experience to the wonders of capitalism, American ingenuity and the things you can do with trigonometry.
@@ClockworksOfGL You obviously don’t know why the State of New York built it. Commerce. It paid for itself quickly, made NYC the nation’s business capitol and was a cash cow for the state for many, many years. It was all about capitalism.
@@jockellis Yes. It was motivated by the self-interest of those that built it, yet it benefitted countless people in the future and in far-away territories. The great chain of industry pulled everyone into a more prosperous future.
That was a great history story and I enjoyed it very much, I grow up by one of the locks on the Erie Canel Extension near Sharpsville, Pa, and I have always been interested in anything that has to do with the Erie Canal, one of my fathers best friends actually had what would be called a camping trailer today set up on the actual towpath of the canal at what was call slackwater on the Shenango, river that we would frequent on the weekend for swimming, bonfires, and corn rosters during the summer.
Very nice narrative on the Erie Canal. However (there's always a "however") No mention is made of the fact that the Erie Canal was built twice in many sections. For example, where I live in Jordan, NY, the original "Clinton's Ditch" was replaced by the new widened and deepened Erie Canal that ran roughly parallel to the original. There are many places where you can still see the route of the 1825 canal where it now goes through woods and fields, and some of the local roads are now what used to be the towpath. Canal Rd and Newport Rd in Camillus, NY, and Peru Rd. in Memphis and Jordan, NY are examples. My dad was a local history buff and pointed out to me that the low spot across my own back yard is actually a remnant of Clinton's Ditch. It's fascinating to me that De Witt Clinton himself had passed within 60 feet or so of where I'm sitting right now on his "Wedding Of The Waters" trip. Starting in the mid-1800's, the original canal started to be improved, widened, and re-routed, leaving many sections of Clinton's Ditch abandoned. In the Central NY area, the improved canal has many sections restored, including a long stretch in Camillus, NY where they actually restored the aqueduct over 9-mile creek. Most people I know don't even realized the canal they see now is the newer one, not even realizing that some of the wide, deep ditches alongside many roads are, in fact, Clinton's ditch.
Thank you for the insightful and informative presentation. Though we all learned about the Canal in US history, never in this kind of detail. Again, thanks for all this information.
Where's the other 👍 buttons? I need 9 more. The photos and drawings add a lot of comprehension. One of my goals is to sail my little self-made sailboat along the great Erie Canal.
I used to live just north of Albany, and was curious on the entry point from the Hudson river to the Erie Canal in Albany. Most of the canal and locks have been filled in or removed in the area. I found some info in the Wikipedia page on the Albany Lumber District, which had a lot of side canals for loading and unloading lumber a short distance from the canal entry point near Patroon Island, which is no longer an island. There is also some info on the Albany Basin, which was a partially enclosed "port of entry" to the canal in the Port of "Albany-Rensselaer" Wikipedia page.
I've grown up in the Albany area, and some of the "retaining walls" around here are even more amazing when you realize that 1) they're actually the walls of the canal, and 2) that they were done by hand. Look to the west side of I-787 in Cohoes, or drive Canal St in Fort Edward (actually the old Champlain Canal which is more or less an offshoot of the Erie Canal - too much history to delve into in a comment!)
I was raised in Syracuse, went to college in Ithaca, now I live in Michigan. Seems like Upstate NY and Michigan are linked historically by the Erie Canal. We salute the vision of Clinton Dewitt whose project seems to have been a roaring success.
My life's goal is to correct this glaring error. The Erie Canal was not built with cement, it was in fact built with concrete. Cement is an ingredient used along with aggregate, sand, water and other possible add mixtures to make concrete. Calling concrete cement is like calling a bag of flour a cake.
Why? It's called the dead sea because it is dead and people can easily die in its torrid salty waters. No docks exist on the dead sea what purpose would it serve?
Sorry, as a historian in SW Pennsylvania, the idea that settlers hadn't pushed into the American heartland is simply incorrect. Braddock's road from the Potomac fall line to the Ohio River was the first breach of the Appalachian Mountains followed by Forbes road during the French and Indian war followed by the opening of the Cumberland Gap in 1774. Though not an all water route, settlers were flowing over the mountains, such as the Clark family family in 1788, the Marieta, Ohio colony in 1788, and all the western settlers who were caught up in in Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790's many years before the existence of the Erie cannal.
We couldn't do it today, without hydraulic power, and fossil fuels. Let alone live off the land, providing the workers enough calories to function, and get the hard work done. They were some hardy fellas back then.
I think it's funny to watch people who are dumbfounded by the knowledge and work ethic of previous generations, and write the actions off as untrue or impossible. Just because you can't imagine doing it, or understand how it's done, doesn't mean it's impossible.
