I'm really glad you did the Erie Canal. As a child in elementary school (in NY), we learned about the building of the canal. But, it didn't really register. About 15 years ago, we visited Niagara Falls. On a drizzly day, we decided to tour the canal from Lockport. What an eye-opener! 323 miles dug through dense NY forest, plus 18 aqueducts and 83 locks, using nothing but picks, shovels, horses, oxen and black powder -- in 7 years! Amazing!
I grew up in western Massachusetts and had a tangential understanding of it as a kid and learned more about it as I studied American History later in life while living in Colorado. Now that I've recently move back to Mass. in the last couple of years I've spent a lot of time really digging into the local history of the Erie Canal and exploring it (and the rest of Upstate NY) It's been wonderful.
I don’t think there’s much left of the original Erie Canal, ie. “Clinton’s Ditch”. It was so successful, the state enlarged and rerouted it a couple times, eventually consolidating everything into the “Barge Canal” or whatever it’s called. Most of the old sections are from subsequent enlargements.
@@twothreebravo - Western/Central Mass & Connecticut has a few remnants of the Farmington Canal. Unlike the Erie, it didn’t work out well and the owners ended up converting it to a railroad in the 1840s.
'i've got a mule, her name is Sal, 15 years on the Erie canal. she's a good old worker and a good old pal, 15 years on the Erie canal. we've hauled some barges in our day, filled with lumber coal and hay, and we know every inch of the way from Albany to Buffalo. Words to a song we learned in grade school in Ohio in the 60's.
Bonus fact. Rochester Ny was originally known as Flour City, due to the amount of flour produced and shipped there on the Erie Canal. Now Rochester is known as the Flower City for its Lilac Trees that flower every spring.
I am from Irondequoit (something like 50 spellings). The canal combined with the water power of the Genesee River turned Rochester into a grain milling hub - hence the nick name "flour city". This was later changed to "flower city" with it's many nurseries in the late 1800's. Keep up the good work.
I live near Buffalo NY and I never realized how little people know about the Erie Canal in America till I got older lol. My sister also lives in Lockport!
Having grown up in Buffalo, I really enjoyed this look at a substantial part of our heritage. The Welland Canal, which cuts across the Niagara Peninsula from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, avoiding Niagara Falls essentially brought an end to the Barge Canals relevance. Not long ago, the original western terminus of the Erie Canal was restored in Buffalo as a tourist and recreation hub in downtown Buffalo. Thank You for look at an important part of our history.
Just an important note, not correcting: Welland Canal was built at the same time as Erie, but it was tiny and wooden. It was built 4 times, and you're pointing out the 4th. The 4th coincided the massive St. Lawrence system to be completed for full navigability from Great Lakes to Atlantic. It was only then (long after the original Welland) that the erie and complex canal systems like it became largely irrelevant. This fall from relevance also relied on the fact Trucking and Trains had become ubiquitous, so ships using complex canals made no sense, barges to ports were much more practical by then.
I grew up swimming in the canal. Jumping off the locks. So much fun. I've been all through the old canal bed and into Rochester's abandonned subway tunnels that run in a double aqueduct above the Genesee River but below the canal.. Yeah.. It's pretty cool..
I’m from Fairport, NY. Always loved going to the Canal Days celebration. I grew up playing by that canal all summer. Great piece of history to have as a playground.
Except for last year, Canal Days is still going strong. Right now, they are still planning for this year and everything will be North of the canal because of delays in the bridge rehabilitation project.
I live in upstate NY and The Erie Canal runs through my hometown. It’s perfectly level (except for the locks) so the “tow path” is great for riding bikes and the walking/jogging. The local schools rowing teams practice and race in it and high school students are known to jump into it from bridges for fun. In my town we had a drunk driver mistake it for the road (where it runs parallel to one) and he drove his car into it.
I lived in Ft Plain as a teen. There were parts of the old canal in town, and a lock for the barge canal in the Mohawk River. I used to ride my bike down to watch the barges lock through. I am still fascinated by it.
I live in Tonawanda creek rd in Amherst… a lot of people fish the creek that runs parallel to the canal and it’s got a nice bike path that take you to Tim Horton’s for the best cup of Coffee (or Tea for you limeys) us Yankees have in Buffalo
I grew up along the canal and take a lot of pride in it being a part of my life. I can’t count the number of miles I’ve walked, biked and ran along it’s tow path between Rochester and Buffalo. Thanks for educating the masses about this incredible feat of ingenuity and engineering.
I grew up in/around Schenectady, NY. Erie Blvd., a main street through town, used to be the Erie Canal. All of the cross streets used to be on bridges, and in places you can still see the tops of doorways and windows bricked up just above sidewalk level - they used to be on the canal level and when it was filled in to bring the level up to the other streets they were sealed up. I remember these being especially visible on the buildings at the corner with State St. Up until not to many years ago there still used to be some grain silos behind the Wendy's down near the GE gates, which I was always told dated back to the canal days. A lot of the old canal in that area is buried under I890 and the roads around it, but if you ride the Mohawk Hudson Bikeway out of Schenectady County Community College it picks up the route of the canal down by Rice Rd. You basically ride along the old towpath and will see the ruins of some old locks along the way. The canal gets buried again by the other end of I890 when it gets close to the river, but if you keep along the bike trai it picks up again near River Rd on the other side. What looks like some kind of drainage ditch between River Rd and the Bikeway is the old canal. In the other direction, when the path of the canal leaves Erie Blvd. and eventually is picked up by Aqueduct Rd, it runs down to where Balltown Road crosses the Mohawk River, and you can see the stone arches to the side of the road bridge which used to carry the canal across the river. This is the 'longest' aqueduct shown at the 10:00 mark. On the other side where the Schenectady Yacht Club is, they have a boat lift on a little 'branch' from the river. That branch is the old canal, and the boat lift is the basin for an original lock from 1842. Where the Rivers Casino now sits was formerly a GE facility, and before that it was the American Locomotive plant where the Big Boy was constructed. One of the buildings still had a faded 'AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE' painted on the brickwork up near the roof until it was knocked down. I was fascinated by all of the remains and ruins of the old canal, and later railroads, growing up in the area. Much of it has since vanished, but I see they've vastly extended the bike trails along the old canal and now you can bike hundreds of miles along the old towpaths.
I read a great article once about construction of the Erie Canal that argued it was also the birth of American Engineering as a science. They invented horse powered machines that were capable of pulling up mature oak trees by the roots.
Yes and I have to take exception with this guy's insinuation that the building of the canal was delayed by the inexperience of the engineers. These guys were brilliant, not bumblers. James Geddes surveyed the route of the canal and his measurements were only off by six inches or something... over hundreds of miles! They invented cement that hardened underwater. And New York State paid for all of it, the federal government didn't give them a cent.
I would have to agree. I also found out a very interesting fact while writing my masters thesis years ago. I wrote it on the history of clay of Long Island. From what I could find, the Lloyds of Lloyd Harbor NY were the first to ship raw goods ( stoneware clay for pottery) up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Their clay body (stoneware) mined on Long Island was revered as the finest clay body in the original 13 states, so it was shipped via sloop as far south as South Carolina for pottery production. For many years, Upstate NY had a thriving pottery industry but only had access to local earthenware clay. Once the Erie Canal opened, it completely changed everything. I am not sure if it was the Lloyds who first saw the opportunity to send their more refined clay upstate via the canal, or if a wise potter realized that they now had access to this new supply of clay, allowing for more refined pottery to be made upstate, beyond the ordinary utilitarian vessels. So what happened was that upstate residents started demanding this finer body of clay, so it forced the potters along the Erie canal to purchase it in order to stay in business. Those pottery companies just out of reach of the canal system (or those who simply could not afford to ship the clay) started to die out because nobody wanted their earthenware goods any longer. So from what I found from all of this, was that the opening of the Erie Canal created the first instance of an "imported" product putting local industry out of business. I believe it is also the first instance of a raw good being exported, and then imported back in, as a finished good, as Upstate pottery was very popular in NYC and long Island. Perhaps I am the only one who cares about this, but I found it all quite fascinating. My professor told me that he legitimately thought it was the first new idea and discovery that he had ever read in a thesis paper. I thought that was a pretty great compliment. And this all stemmed from me taking a "Long Island Geology" masters class and realizing that every aquifer is defined by clay, and we happened to have an aquifer on Long Island named the Lloyd aquifer... and off I went. Wow that was long winded. sorry😂😂
Oregon may be roughly the size of England, but it has the Cascades Mountain range splitting it. The Cascades are the height of the Alps. Nothing is more shocking to an American of the west, as the small size of Europe’s mountains and the short distances between major cities. My parents took some friends from England on a drive to Reno . They were flabbergasted by the vast emptiness. When you look on an American map, named ‘cities’ may be no more than a gas station & convenience market. My uncles ranch was in a county larger than Wessex and one of three mapped locations was such a gas mart with an elderly couple cheerfully dispensing goods. The other two cities were smaller than three thousand.
I’ve always wanted to visit Oregon ever since I played the video game Alan wake made by Remedy entertainment. It set in Oregon (Detroit Oregon was used as renders of the game town Bright Falls). Living in London I find the vast expanses of forests some what appealing due to its low density.
We called those 'blink and you miss it' towns. And having to explain incorporated versus unincorporated towns in WV is fun. Yeah, it is a town, but it isn't big enough to run it's own show, so either another town nearby or the county runs the show. And the next nearest town may be 30 minutes+ of up the mountain, down the mountain driving.
@@jameslyddall the forests are wonderful. I have to say Detroit Oregon is kind of a pit. Not worth driving thru. If you ever do visit, there are at least 50 sites which are truly magical. Check out a Google map view of the Columbia Gorge and all the waterfalls to start.
My father's ancestors were carpenters in Upstate NY building wagon, boats and buildings when the Erie Canal was proposed. They ended up building barges, locks and buildings for it then for the canals in Ohio and Indiana. My father's branch went up to Warrick County, Michigan to work on a proposed canal that was cancelled shortly after their arrival. They decided to settle down there building boats and wagons. My father's grandfather was a trim carpenter and cabinet maker that decided he could make more money in Chicago so moved there in 1870.
The only place it happens! When I was a kid, my school bus driver was one of only 2 in the district who could get a bus through there- until winter hit, when the ice layer that formed inside made it just slightly too tight to fit!
I must locate this! Since I moved back to Western Massachusetts 2 years ago I have been exploring the ins and out of the Canal and other interesting stuff in Upstate NY!
@@MikeZ8709 yeah, did you notice he said the Genesee River & Irondequoit Creek we’re in Buffalo? And repeatedly referred to Lockport as “Brockport”? hahah
@@twothreebravo It's in Western New York, not Upstate New York so make it a week and take in all the sights. There is a LOT. Go west on the Mass Pike and take that onto the New York State Thruway. Drive west for several hours, past Rochester, and take the Pembroke exit. Head north on rte 63 for 45 minutes or so until it intersects rte 31 at Medina. Head east on rte 31 for a few minutes until you reach rte 35 which is Culvert Rd. Turn north on Culvert Rd for about 1000 feet and there you are. It's about an 8 hour or so road trip for you. I lived in West Springfield. It's a pretty area.
I recently took a cruise through a few of the locks in Lockport while on a trip to Niagara Falls. What a great experience to have and seen. All should visit!! Thank you for doing this video 😊
Some of the arms of the canal are paved and turned into major interstates that still bring goods across the northeast. I live in Binghamton NY which is the convergence of the Susquehanna River and the Chenango River. Our rivers no longer transport goods but the link to the Erie Canal was paved and Binghamton is the intersection of Interstates 81, 88, and 86. A center of river trade continues to be a center as you can get anywhere from those 3 highways.
The image at 5:21 of the "bustling New York City" is actually downtown Syracuse, NY, which boomed as a result of the Erie canal. This is Clinton Square, which is now a public fountain and ice skating rink in the winter. The building with the clocktower is still there as well. The section of the Erie canal shown in this image is location of the modern day Erie Boulevard, which runs through the city. Great video, excellent work as always!
I grew up in a town on the Eerie canal and I used to walk through the woods to school and I would walk along part of the site of the original eerie canal that was drained of water. It's amazing to see that something I learned about so much in school as a child and grew up right next to is a large enough historical achievement to be featured on megaprojects
@@jonadabtheunsightly That's the problem for me, the only jobs in town are fast food, boutique shops and teaching (because the school can't hold on to a decent teacher for more than a year).
@@aaronsakulich4889 And that War gave impetus to American efforts to build the canal as a way of avoiding the St. Lawrence River and the Port of Montreal in British Territory. The British soon built their own version starting in 1824, bypassing Niagara Falls: the Welland Canal. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welland_Canal
The photo used around 12:14 is from Rochester looking north along the Genesee River and dates no earlier than 1936. The white building in the lower right is the Rundel Library. In this picture, the "trench" just south and east of the library is the original canal bed. the bridge just north of the library was the aqueduct, which ran at the level of the smaller arches. By 1936, that section of canal bed was in use with a relatively short-lived subway system that ran from 1927 to 1956. On a side note, you might find the Fairport Lift Bridge an interesting related project for one of your other channels. It is angled on all three axes.
I grew up in Lockport NY, still living in the area. I'm retired and often go for long drives , posting pics on FB. I often go for long drives covering all of western NY. . Others are amazed by the landscape, architecture of New York outside of NYC. NY has Niagara Falls, lakes Erie and Ontario, the Adirondack mts, the fingerlakes....etc. The city of Buffalo is unique as it's a mega suburb. From downtown to farms is just a 30min drive. Along lake Ontario is renowned for its vineyards and orchards. Oh yea, and we get SNOW due to a phenomenon called "lake effect". . I just thought ppl should know what the other 95% of NY is like.... it's gorgeous, unique, and not all city
I'm from Albany area. Growing up we learned of the locks and canal system. Even took a class trip on a boat through 2 Locks. My grandmother's relative use to pull barges leading the ox or horse. And my other grandmothers great grandfather came here from Ireland and they settled in Utica and Rome to work digging the canal.
I used to live in Buffalo N.Y. and one of my favorite past times was to boat along the Erie Canal. A lot of cities and towns use it as a main feature for festivals and such. North Tonawanda and Tonawanda use the Canal to divide the Canal Fest up. A little festival held in mid summer. Very fun and entertaining.
You took my suggestion! I grew up with The Miami Erie canal in my backyard. It connected Lake Erie to Cincinnati. My grandmother's family had general store that was supplied by the canal when she was very young. It blows my mind that until I was 21 I Had a living relative that saw horse drawn canal boats being used for business until 1913. My great Aunt ran the general store until mid 80'. She had a hand pump for water in the middle of the kitchen and used an outhouse until she moved into assisted living. He store was in Newport Ohio which is about 30 miles South of Grand Lake Saint Marys. At one time it was the world's largest Man Made lake. I believe it is still the World's largest man made lake that was built without power equipment.
Just a little clarification (i live in Buffalo) I know it wont be reedited but Brockport is about 50mi east of Lockport (which is on the map) also the Genesee River is another 20mi east of that. Then the Irondequoit Creek is another 5-10miles east of that. So i think just a little of the script is out of order. The crossings of those rivers would have happened during the Albany to Brockport construction.
Agreed. I grew up in Brockport. Nice to hear the hometown mentioned, but that dot was Lockport. Writer/editor should take a little more care and look at a map - they must have combined the text for 2 different troublesome areas and jumbled them up..
It's pretty crazy I'm watching this while driving right down Route 5S from Utica to Mohawk in Upstate New York Simon you really know how to make me feel at home
My wife and I both grew up along the Erie Canal/New York State Barge Canal. (My wife in Oneida, between Syracuse and Rome; myself in Palmyra; prior to the canal, a community larger than Rochester, NY.) THANKYOU for a fine summary of the project and its impact. THESE DAYS, recovering and restoring parts of the historic canal and its supporting landscape have been funded to great effect by tolls from the New York State Thruway Authority. Tourism impact and a sense of longer term local culture have benefitted from the increased investment...across the length of Central Upstate New York.
@@SchoharieCrossing1825 I just checked out the web page for Schoharie Creek State Historic Park: the page offers a fine presentation of the stabilized remnants of a significant element of the Erie Canal: control and impoundment of surplus waters for later release. Fine slideshow.
Fun fact: the Erie Canal is not actually visible in the photo at 12:12! The canal's former aqueduct (the second closest bridge to the camera), which allowed it to traverse the Genesee River, was turned into the Broad Street Bridge after the canal was re-routed south of Rochester. Housed in the canal's former bed was the city's trolley system, then its subway system, with a road for pedestrians and vehicles built above it. The aforementioned waterway used to run through where the white-ish building near the bottom right corner of the photo is sitting and went south along what was then "South St. Paul Street", now simply "St. Paul Street".
@@stereokidDino is in this picture! The large white building on the right, on its front left corner, there is a building on the other side of the bridge (closer to the camera). It’s kinda perched along the bridge. That’s Dino! To the right of it, you can see parts of the aqueduct filled with water. That’s all still there!
I live in a suburb of Rochester, right near Irondequoit Creek. Sometimes I go on a road that goes along The Great Embankment. When I was younger I played in a park with the Irond. Creek through it. The change into the Barge Canal had some of the water parts in Rochester removed. In fact, part of I490 in the city goes over a lock and there are a few locks nearby that are mostly drained - they are filled with swamp - and are just crumbling stone.
I remember my parents taking me sightseeing on the Erie Canal in the 70's and being very bored. It wasn't until many years later I understood the importance of this project
A lot of folks can share that sentiment. Seems dramatically over-rated or less respected when in childhood - its not until you see it as an adult and explore the canalway that it all seems to make sense.
The impact of the Erie Canal on the lives of Chicagoans was about as profound as the impact of the internet. Chicagoans could engage in routine trade with the East Coast, and vice versa. It's impact on the Middle West was transformative.
I really enjoy watching your channel glad to see an episode of the Erie Canal Which is home for myself I live in upstate New York keep up the great work
Business Blaze Mega Projects Side Projects Top Tenz Today I Found Out Biographics Geographics Highlight History Xplrd Visual Politik EN The Simon Whistler Show I may have missed one. Visual Politk EN is now hosted by someone else. The Simon Whistler Show hasn't had new content for a while.
Great for boating/camping, especially in the areas where there aren't many people. I try to boat this canal every summer and it's a very relaxing get away
I live pretty close to the canal, recently biked the entire thing. 1. Good job on the research. 2. The locks at Lockport still exist, 3. As does the aqueduct intersecting the Erie Canal and Genesee River.
@@evanchan4012 A couple of years, we divided it up into 20-30 miles chunks on the weekend. If you're in good shape (which I am not) you can do it in a week. www.ptny.org/cycle-the-erie-canal/annual-bike-tour
@@evanchan4012 but some people ride the canalway from Buffalo to Albany anywhere from 3 days to a week. PTNY does an annual supported ride as well. @James - good point on the locks and Lockport has a wonderful Discovery Center. You can drive over the Genesee River Aqueduct
I live on the Erie Canal in Tonawanda, NY, just north of Buffalo. When we first moved here, (1957) there was still extensive commerce in the form of barges hauling oil pushed by diesel powered tugboats. Very polluted water, but as time went on and the commerce declined, the water has gotten cleaner and it has since been promoted as a recreational waterway and is very busy during the summers. Every now and then while digging on the bank near the still visible mule path, I have found 'mule shoes', basically a small metal horseshoe probably discarded when mules were the preferred (and only) means of locomotion for the barges.
I'm from Rome, NY! The canal was started there, where the Mohawk River turned north. The canal ran downwards in both directions from Rome, so a good source of water was needed to keep it full. The technology needed to make the Mohawk itself navigable did not exist, so the canal was separate. However, the upgraded "Barge" canal was within the river between Troy and Rome. (Why do these cities and others have these names? I was told that there was a traveling 'consultant' who would, for a fee, allow a town to reserve a name from his list.)
Because I live in Schenectady and jog along the Erie Canal pathway everyday, I see the old locks quite a bit. It's been a lot of fun for my son and I over the years to climb down into the various locks and figure out just how they worked. Because of this I would have to rate this episode as by far my favorite!
Really cool, nice to meet you neighbor! The SCHS/Mabee Farm does some cool Erie Canal programs from time to time - especially connecting with GE and today's canal on the Mohawk River!
Something people even in America don't realize is that upstate NY is covered in canal ruins! They're all over the place. Not just the Erie Canal but all of the side canals all over the state. Packing a picnic lunch for the day and driving out into the country to discover them, is a uniquely upstate NY pastime.
Another important waterway was the Illinois and Michican Canal that connected Lake Michigan at Chicago to the Mississippi. This completed a water route from NYC to the Gulf of Mexico.
@@tncorgi92 as someone from buffalo, I thought that song was like any other american folk song. Didn't realize people from around other parts didn't know it, or the erie canal.
@@maluinthe90s Maybe it's because I was born in 1950, and grew up in an America that still had a reasonably good education system, but I grew up singing the song, and reading about the Canal, in Los Angeles. "And you'll always know your neighbor And you'll always know your pal If you ever navigated on the Erie Canal"
@@RCAvhstape All he has to do is read. I could imagine him being able to do several per day. Impressive but not impossible. I bet a good chunk of every day is administrative. Very busy guy for sure!
Lockport native here. The canal was a great source of entertainment from fishing (don't eat them, toss em back), to swimming, to riding the lock gates as they opened and closed (late 60's and early 70's). A great place to grow up.
@@thesphinx336 Example :9;23 Should have said Lockport , Brockport is in Monroe county . Lockport Escapment at 10:31 Not Onondaga . The Star Drill was reportedly invented by a Blacksmith in Lockport To cut thru the dense Dolestone . I did enjoy the video . The Rochester Crossing is shown at 12:22 . I can walk to the Original route of the Erie Canal in less than 10 minutes , we were an early Boomtown because of the Canal .
14:12 That's what I find the most incredible about all of this. To this day, NYC is one of the most prominent, rich, and powerful cities *in the world.* That started _with this canal._ 100%, without a doubt, if this canal had not been built, NYC would not have become _the_ trade hub between the entire interior/industrial midwest and all of Europe, and so it would have been just another minor east coast port city!
It's a good example of why "boring" things like good infrastructure and logistics networks and favorable geographic features often have a bigger impact on history than we give them credit for.
Very minor correction; Irondequoit Creek is in a southeast suburb of Rochester, NY and the Genesee River flows directly through the city of Rochester, NY. Irondequoit Creek still flows through a concrete culvert under the canal while the Genesee River is now an intersection with the canal, rather than the canal being carried over the river via an aqueduct. The old aqueduct still remains and is a fascinating adventure!
@@thomaskesel5703 ... I think it's technically Bushnell's Basin, but yes, Pittsford zip code and Fairport school district (IIRC). What a weird corner of the county. :) (I'm in Fairport)
Thanks Simon. Born and brought up in the Erie area, (next to the Welland Canal) you taught me more about the area I have so often travelled through and always knew of but never KNEW about than all the years living in the region taught me. Gotta love the internet and of course, Mega Projects.
In the mid 1970's I was crew on a sailboat delivery from just south of Detroit, Michigan to Fort Meyers, Florida. We used the Eric Canal to get to the Hudson River. I remember a lot of locks, especially near the Hudson. From the Hudson to Delaware Bay, through another canal to Chesapeake Bay then down the Intercostal waterway to Florida, across Lake Okeechobee then down to Ft. Meyers. 3 months, in autumn, cold... wonderful!
Worked and traveled the eastern half of Ohio last year. Evidence of the extensive canal system crisscrossed the landscape, running mostly parallel to roadways and rail beds. Likely unnoticed by most, ghosts of transportation past. Fascinating. Thanks for the excellent content 💫
Here is a megaproject. The USS Monitor. She may not have been huge, but the impact on naval warfare was massive. She ended wooden sailing warships and warships with rows of guns, had more than 40 patentable components, and the world's first rotating turret ever to be used in battle. She is the true ancestor to all modern warships.
How cool! My Childhood home is right next to the Maumee-Wabash-Cannonbal canal, and now I live right next to the Ohio and Erie Canal. Bothe are practically in the backyards. Now they're both nature parks with the towpaths as trails for my 10k's. For people with no e xperience i canal building to build pathways longer than Europe, Very impressive. To quote the Chunnel episode, Engineering is a wonderful thing
I was raised 2 blocks from the old Erie. It always amazed me how they could build this through such difficult terrain. I can imagine quietly passing through the wilderness in the 1800s. I wonder how many famous people cruised through my small town at the maximum speed of 4 mph
Yeah I thought I heard that small mistake also, I had to rewind to be sure. Like you said the information concentration is so strong a misspeaking is understandable!
There are a lot of towns in Michigan named after towns in Upstate New York: Rochester, Utica, Ithaca to name a few. You can see in these place names the settlement patterns, as people migrated along the canal and through the Great Lakes.
I grew up a few miles east of Rome. The Erie Canal was about a thousand feet across the road from our house. Four great transportation routes lay about a half mile from my front door. The Erie Canal, the Mohawk River, the NY Central RR -three tracks wide, and the NY Barge Canal. The Mohawk River was the original transportation thoroughfare as Native Americans could travel by canoe from Lake Ontario on Wood Creek to Rome, called De-O-Wain-Sta, (The Great Carrying Place). From there canoes were carried one to four miles to the Mohawk River that flowed to the Hudson River. As kids in the 1950’s and 1960’s we would play, hunt and fish in the Mohawk River. The canal was and is heavily overgrown with trees and undergrowth. It was a fun childhood.
Did you ever go to the Erie Canal Village there in Rome as a kid? and howdy from a bit east of Rome - Schoharie Crossing here in Fort Hunter, Montgomery County, New York
@@SchoharieCrossing1825 The village wasn’t there yet before I left in 1967, and I didn’t go see it on past visits. The ft Stanwix was not recreated before I left, but I toured it once in the 1970’s.
Alexander1485 All the highest paying jobs are near big cities. Living in big cities is incredibly expensive and consumes most of your $ Only way to get ahead for most involves a commute.
Malaria also killed large numbers of people when the Rideau Canal was being built. All of the labourers died of the disease in the area around the village of Seeleys Bay. The area where the malaria occurred was in a marshy lake that was given the name Mosquito Lake(the name was later called Opinicon Lake because it was in poor taste to name the lake after the animals which killed the labourers).
Living in the village at Lock 15 along the present day canal, I found this fascinating. Not only for the information held within but also the fact that Simon Whistler felt it important enough to make a video about it.
@@beckeb00 Nice! I'm familiar - pre-pandemic visits to the Highwheeler and the Antique Store were at least a once a month adventure! The Lock there is nice too - small little park along its chamber. Hit up the Fort Plain Museum at all? Nice RevWar conferences they've put on.
An original and unexpanded section of the canal is right in my backyard. My village was built up around a dry dock and a few mills along the canal. The mills were powered a nearby stream, which passed under an aqueduct in the canal, to process grain that was being shipped on the canal. Today the canal towpath is now a great park, and will soon offer a complete walkway from Buffalo to Albany.
In this case you can probably tell me: I don't quite understand why the western half of the canal was even necessary... The canal route goes through Oneida Lake and from there there seems to be the Oswego river running straight into Lake Ontario. Why would you build 200 km of canal just 15 km parallel to the shores of the lake? Surely it would have been easier to just make the Oswego fit for ships, and it seems they did this a few years later.
@@MirageGSM one word: Niagara. At the time the Welland Canal wasn't built. So they'd just be stuck in the Falls torrent. Thats why the Erie Canal Ran just upstream from the falls
@@redlightning2322 exactly - not all rivers are passable and this really was the main route for commerce for a WHILE, certain parts were enlarged several times, etc......Clinton's Ditch is now the bottling company name for the local pepsi bottler too which is kinda neat imo
Mega projects Suggestion: SS Normandie one of the largest and expensive(1,000,000,000 dollars adjusted for inflation) transatlantic liner built and a former blue riband holder and her lost in WW2 was also one of the biggest and expensive salvage operation ever overtaken at that time
That's because if I was to tell you that my average weekly commute is around 1250 kilometers, you wouldn't believe it. But when I tell you that I live almost 70 miles/112 km from work, and a one way trip takes just over an hour, that sounds more believable. If a European drives for six hours, in any direction, they're in another country. Meanwhile, a six hour drive for me means another four until I reach a different State.
I think Ellis Island and NYC did that...but it was OG NYC when working-class people had apartments in Midtown. It wasn't Hedge Fund, Cronut, Brunch-In-Brooklyn NYC. How sad it is now :(
Former New Yorker here that relocated in Wisconsin. I used to play on the ice of old sections of canal and in the summer I would ride my bike on the tow path. Lots of connections between Wisconsin and NY.
I live near a section of the old Lake Champlain feeder canal system and go walking on the towpaths. It's still quite wonderful and some of the working lockes in our area provide tremendous fishing access. It was a sense of achievement of mine to see a trickle of water on Mount Marcy become the mighty Hudson River all being accomplished on foot and in a bit of remoteness. It's odd being a New Yorker who has only seen the city and never set foot within, but trod over the Adirondacks, including her 46 High peaks in all 4 seasons, then south and west on the rivers, the canal systems, in old mines, and above mentioned towpaths.
was the st lawrance river a project that was dug? im genuinely asking - was it somehow a project or just a natural feature which was always my assumption becasue if just natural then maybe geographics but not here
@@OsX86H3AvY I assume he means the St Lawrence Seaway and Power Project. In the early 50s they dredged the wonderful rapids and flooded many towns to create canals and power dams.
@@OsX86H3AvY When Europeans arrived in the area, the farthest up river you could sail was the city of Montreal. Building the St Lawrence Seaway allowed ocean going ships to get into the Great Lakes and between the Great lakes. The Welland Canal, paralleling the Niagara rive between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario has existed since the same time frame as the Erie Canal, but it was expand to allow ships from the ocean to traverse it as part of the ST Lawrence Seaway project. I believe there were smaller canals that allowed boats to get along the St Lawrence into Lake Ontario, then up the Rideau Canal into Ottawa. There is also a canal allowing access from the St Lawrence river into the Ottawa river and then up to Ottawa, but it wasn't expanded as part of the Seaway project.
Loved the video. I live in PA and the Canal had a pretty huge impact on the state economy which helped my area to rebuild after the Civil War. It was those same German masons that rebuilt the bridge burned in Wrightsville to stop the Confederate advance. I've got two video ideas for you: Mega Projects could cover the current efforts to plug up the millions of abandoned oil wells in the US and Canada. Side projects could cover the pig iron furnaces in Marietta, PA; coal mining in Centralia and logging industry along the Susquehanna River that enabled the creation of Pittsburgh's steel works and led to the Industrial Revolution.
Just looked it up, the time savings was huge! Before the canal, it took 15 to 45 days to travel the distance by wagon. After it took 9 days. The cost before for freight was about $125 a ton and after $6 a ton.
I'm really glad you did the Erie Canal. As a child in elementary school (in NY), we learned about the building of the canal. But, it didn't really register. About 15 years ago, we visited Niagara Falls. On a drizzly day, we decided to tour the canal from Lockport. What an eye-opener! 323 miles dug through dense NY forest, plus 18 aqueducts and 83 locks, using nothing but picks, shovels, horses, oxen and black powder -- in 7 years! Amazing!
another location that was cut as well goo.gl/maps/cM2JTVGNhNpmtkBt7
I grew up in western Massachusetts and had a tangential understanding of it as a kid and learned more about it as I studied American History later in life while living in Colorado. Now that I've recently move back to Mass. in the last couple of years I've spent a lot of time really digging into the local history of the Erie Canal and exploring it (and the rest of Upstate NY) It's been wonderful.
I don’t think there’s much left of the original Erie Canal, ie. “Clinton’s Ditch”. It was so successful, the state enlarged and rerouted it a couple times, eventually consolidating everything into the “Barge Canal” or whatever it’s called. Most of the old sections are from subsequent enlargements.
@@twothreebravo - Western/Central Mass & Connecticut has a few remnants of the Farmington Canal. Unlike the Erie, it didn’t work out well and the owners ended up converting it to a railroad in the 1840s.
@@ClockworksOfGL -- That's true. But, the "Barge Canal" travels roughly the same route and it's still open.
'i've got a mule, her name is Sal, 15 years on the Erie canal. she's a good old worker and a good old pal, 15 years on the Erie canal. we've hauled some barges in our day, filled with lumber coal and hay, and we know every inch of the way from Albany to Buffalo. Words to a song we learned in grade school in Ohio in the 60's.
Bonus fact. Rochester Ny was originally known as Flour City, due to the amount of flour produced and shipped there on the Erie Canal. Now Rochester is known as the Flower City for its Lilac Trees that flower every spring.
better than Garbage Plate City but then again, that's a good reason to visit!
@@davidbrooks4621 Fantastic reason to visit.
Well I always thought it was known as the last civilised place before Canada.
I am from Irondequoit (something like 50 spellings). The canal combined with the water power of the Genesee River turned Rochester into a grain milling hub - hence the nick name "flour city". This was later changed to "flower city" with it's many nurseries in the late 1800's. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, I loved growing up in Irodequoit- and we saw lots of the various canals.
Rochester is great. It has so much history.
I live near Buffalo NY and I never realized how little people know about the Erie Canal in America till I got older lol. My sister also lives in Lockport!
tonawanda here
Lockportian here!
I live in Attica!
Amherst
I live near Rochester! The canal is a 20 minute walk from my house, and I only knew it existed before I moved here. (I'm not originally from NY.)
Having grown up in Buffalo, I really enjoyed this look at a substantial part of our heritage. The Welland Canal, which cuts across the Niagara Peninsula from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, avoiding Niagara Falls essentially brought an end to the Barge Canals relevance. Not long ago, the original western terminus of the Erie Canal was restored in Buffalo as a tourist and recreation hub in downtown Buffalo. Thank You for look at an important part of our history.
Canalside is a wicked fun place
Just an important note, not correcting: Welland Canal was built at the same time as Erie, but it was tiny and wooden. It was built 4 times, and you're pointing out the 4th. The 4th coincided the massive St. Lawrence system to be completed for full navigability from Great Lakes to Atlantic. It was only then (long after the original Welland) that the erie and complex canal systems like it became largely irrelevant. This fall from relevance also relied on the fact Trucking and Trains had become ubiquitous, so ships using complex canals made no sense, barges to ports were much more practical by then.
restored ? no. uncovered ? yes
I grew up swimming in the canal. Jumping off the locks. So much fun. I've been all through the old canal bed and into Rochester's abandonned subway tunnels that run in a double aqueduct above the Genesee River but below the canal.. Yeah.. It's pretty cool..
I’m from Fairport, NY. Always loved going to the Canal Days celebration. I grew up playing by that canal all summer. Great piece of history to have as a playground.
Except for last year, Canal Days is still going strong. Right now, they are still planning for this year and everything will be North of the canal because of delays in the bridge rehabilitation project.
@@nconantj thanks for that update, I have some great memories from that place 😊
I live in upstate NY and The Erie Canal runs through my hometown. It’s perfectly level (except for the locks) so the “tow path” is great for riding bikes and the walking/jogging. The local schools rowing teams practice and race in it and high school students are known to jump into it from bridges for fun. In my town we had a drunk driver mistake it for the road (where it runs parallel to one) and he drove his car into it.
Yup, same here in the Rochester area!
I lived in Ft Plain as a teen. There were parts of the old canal in town, and a lock for the barge canal in the Mohawk River. I used to ride my bike down to watch the barges lock through. I am still fascinated by it.
I live in Tonawanda creek rd in Amherst… a lot of people fish the creek that runs parallel to the canal and it’s got a nice bike path that take you to Tim Horton’s for the best cup of Coffee (or Tea for you limeys) us Yankees have in Buffalo
I grew up along the canal and take a lot of pride in it being a part of my life. I can’t count the number of miles I’ve walked, biked and ran along it’s tow path between Rochester and Buffalo. Thanks for educating the masses about this incredible feat of ingenuity and engineering.
I grew up in/around Schenectady, NY. Erie Blvd., a main street through town, used to be the Erie Canal. All of the cross streets used to be on bridges, and in places you can still see the tops of doorways and windows bricked up just above sidewalk level - they used to be on the canal level and when it was filled in to bring the level up to the other streets they were sealed up. I remember these being especially visible on the buildings at the corner with State St.
Up until not to many years ago there still used to be some grain silos behind the Wendy's down near the GE gates, which I was always told dated back to the canal days. A lot of the old canal in that area is buried under I890 and the roads around it, but if you ride the Mohawk Hudson Bikeway out of Schenectady County Community College it picks up the route of the canal down by Rice Rd. You basically ride along the old towpath and will see the ruins of some old locks along the way.
The canal gets buried again by the other end of I890 when it gets close to the river, but if you keep along the bike trai it picks up again near River Rd on the other side. What looks like some kind of drainage ditch between River Rd and the Bikeway is the old canal.
In the other direction, when the path of the canal leaves Erie Blvd. and eventually is picked up by Aqueduct Rd, it runs down to where Balltown Road crosses the Mohawk River, and you can see the stone arches to the side of the road bridge which used to carry the canal across the river. This is the 'longest' aqueduct shown at the 10:00 mark.
On the other side where the Schenectady Yacht Club is, they have a boat lift on a little 'branch' from the river. That branch is the old canal, and the boat lift is the basin for an original lock from 1842.
Where the Rivers Casino now sits was formerly a GE facility, and before that it was the American Locomotive plant where the Big Boy was constructed. One of the buildings still had a faded 'AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE' painted on the brickwork up near the roof until it was knocked down.
I was fascinated by all of the remains and ruins of the old canal, and later railroads, growing up in the area. Much of it has since vanished, but I see they've vastly extended the bike trails along the old canal and now you can bike hundreds of miles along the old towpaths.
I read a great article once about construction of the Erie Canal that argued it was also the birth of American Engineering as a science. They invented horse powered machines that were capable of pulling up mature oak trees by the roots.
Yes and I have to take exception with this guy's insinuation that the building of the canal was delayed by the inexperience of the engineers. These guys were brilliant, not bumblers. James Geddes surveyed the route of the canal and his measurements were only off by six inches or something... over hundreds of miles! They invented cement that hardened underwater. And New York State paid for all of it, the federal government didn't give them a cent.
I would have to agree. I also found out a very interesting fact while writing my masters thesis years ago. I wrote it on the history of clay of Long Island. From what I could find, the Lloyds of Lloyd Harbor NY were the first to ship raw goods ( stoneware clay for pottery) up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Their clay body (stoneware) mined on Long Island was revered as the finest clay body in the original 13 states, so it was shipped via sloop as far south as South Carolina for pottery production. For many years, Upstate NY had a thriving pottery industry but only had access to local earthenware clay. Once the Erie Canal opened, it completely changed everything. I am not sure if it was the Lloyds who first saw the opportunity to send their more refined clay upstate via the canal, or if a wise potter realized that they now had access to this new supply of clay, allowing for more refined pottery to be made upstate, beyond the ordinary utilitarian vessels. So what happened was that upstate residents started demanding this finer body of clay, so it forced the potters along the Erie canal to purchase it in order to stay in business. Those pottery companies just out of reach of the canal system (or those who simply could not afford to ship the clay) started to die out because nobody wanted their earthenware goods any longer. So from what I found from all of this, was that the opening of the Erie Canal created the first instance of an "imported" product putting local industry out of business. I believe it is also the first instance of a raw good being exported, and then imported back in, as a finished good, as Upstate pottery was very popular in NYC and long Island. Perhaps I am the only one who cares about this, but I found it all quite fascinating. My professor told me that he legitimately thought it was the first new idea and discovery that he had ever read in a thesis paper. I thought that was a pretty great compliment. And this all stemmed from me taking a "Long Island Geology" masters class and realizing that every aquifer is defined by clay, and we happened to have an aquifer on Long Island named the Lloyd aquifer... and off I went. Wow that was long winded. sorry😂😂
Oregon may be roughly the size of England, but it has the Cascades Mountain range splitting it. The Cascades are the height of the Alps. Nothing is more shocking to an American of the west, as the small size of Europe’s mountains and the short distances between major cities. My parents took some friends from England on a drive to Reno . They were flabbergasted by the vast emptiness. When you look on an American map, named ‘cities’ may be no more than a gas station & convenience market. My uncles ranch was in a county larger than Wessex and one of three mapped locations was such a gas mart with an elderly couple cheerfully dispensing goods. The other two cities were smaller than three thousand.
Europe is in many places more like a continuous city. Just with different names along the way.
I was struck by the parabolic nature of airline flights between European cities.
I’ve always wanted to visit Oregon ever since I played the video game Alan wake made by Remedy entertainment. It set in Oregon (Detroit Oregon was used as renders of the game town Bright Falls). Living in London I find the vast expanses of forests some what appealing due to its low density.
We called those 'blink and you miss it' towns. And having to explain incorporated versus unincorporated towns in WV is fun. Yeah, it is a town, but it isn't big enough to run it's own show, so either another town nearby or the county runs the show. And the next nearest town may be 30 minutes+ of up the mountain, down the mountain driving.
@@jameslyddall the forests are wonderful. I have to say Detroit Oregon is kind of a pit. Not worth driving thru. If you ever do visit, there are at least 50 sites which are truly magical. Check out a Google map view of the Columbia Gorge and all the waterfalls to start.
As a resident of Weedsport and less then 500 yards from where it went through, I love this! Thank you!
Glad to see this video made - I pitched it in February, and grew up living with the Erie Canal in my back yard.
Same. I can see it out the back and across a corn field.
My father's ancestors were carpenters in Upstate NY building wagon, boats and buildings when the Erie Canal was proposed. They ended up building barges, locks and buildings for it then for the canals in Ohio and Indiana. My father's branch went up to Warrick County, Michigan to work on a proposed canal that was cancelled shortly after their arrival. They decided to settle down there building boats and wagons. My father's grandfather was a trim carpenter and cabinet maker that decided he could make more money in Chicago so moved there in 1870.
an hour drive in America is what we call the work commute.
Tbf It's pretty much the same here in Finland
literally
And the distances you drive in that would only be 2 miles
@@ilarious5729 But Finland doesn't exist, so the drive is quicker.
@@SigEpBlue oh shit I always forget that I'm just in a submarine between sweden and russia, my bad! 😳
In the village of Medina, NY Culvert Road passes underneath the canal.
I need to see this. Rochesterian here.
The only place it happens! When I was a kid, my school bus driver was one of only 2 in the district who could get a bus through there- until winter hit, when the ice layer that formed inside made it just slightly too tight to fit!
I must locate this! Since I moved back to Western Massachusetts 2 years ago I have been exploring the ins and out of the Canal and other interesting stuff in Upstate NY!
@@MikeZ8709 yeah, did you notice he said the Genesee River & Irondequoit Creek we’re in Buffalo? And repeatedly referred to Lockport as “Brockport”? hahah
@@twothreebravo It's in Western New York, not Upstate New York so make it a week and take in all the sights. There is a LOT. Go west on the Mass Pike and take that onto the New York State Thruway. Drive west for several hours, past Rochester, and take the Pembroke exit. Head north on rte 63 for 45 minutes or so until it intersects rte 31 at Medina. Head east on rte 31 for a few minutes until you reach rte 35 which is Culvert Rd. Turn north on Culvert Rd for about 1000 feet and there you are. It's about an 8 hour or so road trip for you. I lived in West Springfield. It's a pretty area.
I recently took a cruise through a few of the locks in Lockport while on a trip to Niagara Falls. What a great experience to have and seen. All should visit!! Thank you for doing this video 😊
Some of the arms of the canal are paved and turned into major interstates that still bring goods across the northeast. I live in Binghamton NY which is the convergence of the Susquehanna River and the Chenango River. Our rivers no longer transport goods but the link to the Erie Canal was paved and Binghamton is the intersection of Interstates 81, 88, and 86. A center of river trade continues to be a center as you can get anywhere from those 3 highways.
The image at 5:21 of the "bustling New York City" is actually downtown Syracuse, NY, which boomed as a result of the Erie canal. This is Clinton Square, which is now a public fountain and ice skating rink in the winter. The building with the clocktower is still there as well. The section of the Erie canal shown in this image is location of the modern day Erie Boulevard, which runs through the city. Great video, excellent work as always!
Noticed that too! The Erie Canal Museum is right near Clinton Square in the old weighlock building
I grew up in a town on the Eerie canal and I used to walk through the woods to school and I would walk along part of the site of the original eerie canal that was drained of water. It's amazing to see that something I learned about so much in school as a child and grew up right next to is a large enough historical achievement to be featured on megaprojects
Simon: An hour's drive is long for me.
Me (an American): An hour's drive is across town
During rush hour it’s more like 2
My commute to work is between 25 mins (night time, no cops or red lights) to an hour and 15 mins (school day during autumn harvest).
@@dhawthorne1634 My commute to work is seven minutes. On foot.
I love living in a small town.
@@jonadabtheunsightly That's the problem for me, the only jobs in town are fast food, boutique shops and teaching (because the school can't hold on to a decent teacher for more than a year).
you must live in Jacksonville, FL lol
You should definitely do a mega project of how the Soviets moved their war industry to the Urals during WW2, I can only imagine how insane that was!
Definitely! Tankograd, alone, was a colossal undertaking. Stay safe.
I hadn't really thought about that as an episode of Mega. I know that it happened, but I have no idea about the details. I would darn sure watch that.
No, the USA will never be communist. It will never be socialist.
@@tolpacourt ???????
I misread “urinals” and admitted to myself “I don’t get the Russian urinal joke at all.”
Assuredly, you meant the War of 1812 delayed the Canal, not the "American Civil War"!
You are correct. Although the canal did play a huge part in helping PA recover after the Civil War.
@@dhawthorne1634 Thank you, I was trying to figure out where the numbers were wrong!
@@aaronsakulich4889 And that War gave impetus to American efforts to build the canal as a way of avoiding the St. Lawrence River and the Port of Montreal in British Territory. The British soon built their own version starting in 1824, bypassing Niagara Falls: the Welland Canal. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welland_Canal
@@greggoodale7297 The British also built the Rideau Canal to avoid the shared border along the St. Lawrence
@@spoony8232 Yeah! I lived for 13 years a few blocks away from the Rideau. Skated on it every winter.
The photo used around 12:14 is from Rochester looking north along the Genesee River and dates no earlier than 1936.
The white building in the lower right is the Rundel Library. In this picture, the "trench" just south and east of the library is the original canal bed. the bridge just north of the library was the aqueduct, which ran at the level of the smaller arches. By 1936, that section of canal bed was in use with a relatively short-lived subway system that ran from 1927 to 1956.
On a side note, you might find the Fairport Lift Bridge an interesting related project for one of your other channels. It is angled on all three axes.
I grew up in Lockport NY, still living in the area. I'm retired and often go for long drives , posting pics on FB.
I often go for long drives covering all of western NY.
.
Others are amazed by the landscape, architecture of New York outside of NYC.
NY has Niagara Falls, lakes Erie and Ontario, the Adirondack mts, the fingerlakes....etc. The city of Buffalo is unique as it's a mega suburb. From downtown to farms is just a 30min drive.
Along lake Ontario is renowned for its vineyards and orchards. Oh yea, and we get SNOW due to a phenomenon called "lake effect".
.
I just thought ppl should know what the other 95% of NY is like.... it's gorgeous, unique, and not all city
What also helped with the success was the existence of extensive canals in the Midwest in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. They just weren't as well known.
I'm from Albany area. Growing up we learned of the locks and canal system. Even took a class trip on a boat through 2 Locks. My grandmother's relative use to pull barges leading the ox or horse. And my other grandmothers great grandfather came here from Ireland and they settled in Utica and Rome to work digging the canal.
I used to live in Buffalo N.Y. and one of my favorite past times was to boat along the Erie Canal. A lot of cities and towns use it as a main feature for festivals and such. North Tonawanda and Tonawanda use the Canal to divide the Canal Fest up. A little festival held in mid summer. Very fun and entertaining.
You took my suggestion! I grew up with The Miami Erie canal in my backyard. It connected Lake Erie to Cincinnati. My grandmother's family had general store that was supplied by the canal when she was very young. It blows my mind that until I was 21 I Had a living relative that saw horse drawn canal boats being used for business until 1913. My great Aunt ran the general store until mid 80'. She had a hand pump for water in the middle of the kitchen and used an outhouse until she moved into assisted living. He store was in Newport Ohio which is about 30 miles South of Grand Lake Saint Marys. At one time it was the world's largest Man Made lake. I believe it is still the World's largest man made lake that was built without power equipment.
Just a little clarification (i live in Buffalo) I know it wont be reedited but Brockport is about 50mi east of Lockport (which is on the map) also the Genesee River is another 20mi east of that. Then the Irondequoit Creek is another 5-10miles east of that. So i think just a little of the script is out of order. The crossings of those rivers would have happened during the Albany to Brockport construction.
I live in buffalo too #eriecountypride 🦬🦬🦬
Agreed. I grew up in Brockport. Nice to hear the hometown mentioned, but that dot was Lockport.
Writer/editor should take a little more care and look at a map - they must have combined the text for 2 different troublesome areas and jumbled them up..
It's pretty crazy I'm watching this while driving right down Route 5S from Utica to Mohawk in Upstate New York Simon you really know how to make me feel at home
@user9823598246 not drunk at all, its sorta my podcast while I drive is all. Thanks for the response
Simon, how about a video on the Welland Canal and St. Laurence Seaway? They're the modern replacement for the Erie Canal.
I think dimon needs to come to NY and see first hand the canal museum and working locks. He might learn something not found on the web
@@billybereu2010 maybe we can send him a copy of the local PBS-TV 📺 WCNY Documentary on the Canal.
My wife and I both grew up along the Erie Canal/New York State Barge Canal. (My wife in Oneida, between Syracuse and Rome; myself in Palmyra; prior to the canal, a community larger than Rochester, NY.) THANKYOU for a fine summary of the project and its impact. THESE DAYS, recovering and restoring parts of the historic canal and its supporting landscape have been funded to great effect by tolls from the New York State Thruway Authority. Tourism impact and a sense of longer term local culture have benefitted from the increased investment...across the length of Central Upstate New York.
James - nicely put! have you visited Schoharie Crossing before with your wife?
@@SchoharieCrossing1825 I just checked out the web page for Schoharie Creek State Historic Park: the page offers a fine presentation of the stabilized remnants of a significant element of the Erie Canal: control and impoundment of surplus waters for later release. Fine slideshow.
Fun fact: the Erie Canal is not actually visible in the photo at 12:12!
The canal's former aqueduct (the second closest bridge to the camera), which allowed it to traverse the Genesee River, was turned into the Broad Street Bridge after the canal was re-routed south of Rochester. Housed in the canal's former bed was the city's trolley system, then its subway system, with a road for pedestrians and vehicles built above it. The aforementioned waterway used to run through where the white-ish building near the bottom right corner of the photo is sitting and went south along what was then "South St. Paul Street", now simply "St. Paul Street".
And me, I'm just trying to figure out where the Dinosaur Bbq would be. lol
@@stereokidDino is in this picture! The large white building on the right, on its front left corner, there is a building on the other side of the bridge (closer to the camera). It’s kinda perched along the bridge. That’s Dino! To the right of it, you can see parts of the aqueduct filled with water. That’s all still there!
I live in a suburb of Rochester, right near Irondequoit Creek.
Sometimes I go on a road that goes along The Great Embankment.
When I was younger I played in a park with the Irond. Creek through it.
The change into the Barge Canal had some of the water parts in Rochester removed.
In fact, part of I490 in the city goes over a lock and there are a few locks nearby that are mostly drained - they are filled with swamp - and are just crumbling stone.
I remember my parents taking me sightseeing on the Erie Canal in the 70's and being very bored. It wasn't until many years later I understood the importance of this project
A lot of folks can share that sentiment. Seems dramatically over-rated or less respected when in childhood - its not until you see it as an adult and explore the canalway that it all seems to make sense.
The impact of the Erie Canal on the lives of Chicagoans was about as profound as the impact of the internet. Chicagoans could engage in routine trade with the East Coast, and vice versa. It's impact on the Middle West was transformative.
I really enjoy watching your channel glad to see an episode of the Erie Canal Which is home for myself I live in upstate New York keep up the great work
Business Blaze
Mega Projects
Side Projects
Top Tenz
Today I Found Out
Biographics
Geographics
Highlight History
Xplrd
Visual Politik EN
The Simon Whistler Show
I may have missed one.
Visual Politk EN is now hosted by someone else. The Simon Whistler Show hasn't had new content for a while.
Great for boating/camping, especially in the areas where there aren't many people. I try to boat this canal every summer and it's a very relaxing get away
I live pretty close to the canal, recently biked the entire thing.
1. Good job on the research.
2. The locks at Lockport still exist,
3. As does the aqueduct intersecting the Erie Canal and Genesee River.
How long did that take?
@@evanchan4012 A couple of years, we divided it up into 20-30 miles chunks on the weekend. If you're in good shape (which I am not) you can do it in a week.
www.ptny.org/cycle-the-erie-canal/annual-bike-tour
@@evanchan4012 but some people ride the canalway from Buffalo to Albany anywhere from 3 days to a week. PTNY does an annual supported ride as well.
@James - good point on the locks and Lockport has a wonderful Discovery Center. You can drive over the Genesee River Aqueduct
I live on the Erie Canal in Tonawanda, NY, just north of Buffalo. When we first moved here, (1957) there was still extensive commerce in the form of barges hauling oil pushed by diesel powered tugboats. Very polluted water, but as time went on and the commerce declined, the water has gotten cleaner and it has since been promoted as a recreational waterway and is very busy during the summers. Every now and then while digging on the bank near the still visible mule path, I have found 'mule shoes', basically a small metal horseshoe probably discarded when mules were the preferred (and only) means of locomotion for the barges.
I'm from Rome, NY! The canal was started there, where the Mohawk River turned north. The canal ran downwards in both directions from Rome, so a good source of water was needed to keep it full. The technology needed to make the Mohawk itself navigable did not exist, so the canal was separate. However, the upgraded "Barge" canal was within the river between Troy and Rome. (Why do these cities and others have these names? I was told that there was a traveling 'consultant' who would, for a fee, allow a town to reserve a name from his list.)
Because I live in Schenectady and jog along the Erie Canal pathway everyday, I see the old locks quite a bit. It's been a lot of fun for my son and I over the years to climb down into the various locks and figure out just how they worked. Because of this I would have to rate this episode as by far my favorite!
Really cool, nice to meet you neighbor! The SCHS/Mabee Farm does some cool Erie Canal programs from time to time - especially connecting with GE and today's canal on the Mohawk River!
Grew up on the Erie Canal. In fact my family helped build many of the towns here in Western NY
Originally from the central NY area, I remember exploring the old ruins of the Black River canal.
Grew up in Lockport
Something people even in America don't realize is that upstate NY is covered in canal ruins! They're all over the place. Not just the Erie Canal but all of the side canals all over the state. Packing a picnic lunch for the day and driving out into the country to discover them, is a uniquely upstate NY pastime.
Another important waterway was the Illinois and Michican Canal that connected Lake Michigan at Chicago to the Mississippi. This completed a water route from NYC to the Gulf of Mexico.
As someone who lives walking distance from the Irondequoit Creek and Genesee River I appreciate this video. Lots of history I wasn’t aware of.
"Low bridge, everybody down..."
Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal
With Sal.
We had to sing that song every year in elementary school.
@@tncorgi92 as someone from buffalo, I thought that song was like any other american folk song. Didn't realize people from around other parts didn't know it, or the erie canal.
@@maluinthe90s Maybe it's because I was born in 1950, and grew up in an America that still had a reasonably good education system, but I grew up singing the song, and reading about the Canal, in Los Angeles.
"And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you ever navigated on the Erie Canal"
I grew up with this practically in my back yard. Great video!!👍👍
Idea for a Megaproject: How Simon Whistler came to dominate the Internet.
How many channels does he host now?
@@barkboingfloom I think there must be clones of him. No one man can handle this workload.
@@RCAvhstape All he has to do is read. I could imagine him being able to do several per day. Impressive but not impossible.
I bet a good chunk of every day is administrative.
Very busy guy for sure!
@@barkboingfloom I think around 8?
Simon is the internet
Lockport native here. The canal was a great source of entertainment from fishing (don't eat them, toss em back), to swimming, to riding the lock gates as they opened and closed (late 60's and early 70's). A great place to grow up.
"In 1817, after a delay caused by the American Civil War..." Simon, that was way before the Civil War. The Civil War was in the 1860's.
I suppose he should have said the War of 1812. This channel is definitely for entertainment purposes ONLY.
I’ve never seen a Simon video without a mistake. His focus is definitely quantity over quality.
@@thesphinx336 Example :9;23 Should have said Lockport , Brockport is in Monroe county . Lockport Escapment at 10:31 Not Onondaga . The Star Drill was reportedly invented by a Blacksmith in Lockport To cut thru the dense Dolestone . I did enjoy the video . The Rochester Crossing is shown at 12:22 . I can walk to the Original route of the Erie Canal in less than 10 minutes , we were an early Boomtown because of the Canal .
I caught that
@@thesphinx336 and that increases the number of comments, that bumps his interaction numbers up, and makes him more $$
Lived a few miles from the canal my whole life, so cool to hear Simon mention all the local landmarks
14:12 That's what I find the most incredible about all of this. To this day, NYC is one of the most prominent, rich, and powerful cities *in the world.* That started _with this canal._ 100%, without a doubt, if this canal had not been built, NYC would not have become _the_ trade hub between the entire interior/industrial midwest and all of Europe, and so it would have been just another minor east coast port city!
It's a good example of why "boring" things like good infrastructure and logistics networks and favorable geographic features often have a bigger impact on history than we give them credit for.
I had the opportunity to see the canal for myself while visiting New York. It's an incredible feat and fascinating to see.
Very minor correction; Irondequoit Creek is in a southeast suburb of Rochester, NY and the Genesee River flows directly through the city of Rochester, NY. Irondequoit Creek still flows through a concrete culvert under the canal while the Genesee River is now an intersection with the canal, rather than the canal being carried over the river via an aqueduct. The old aqueduct still remains and is a fascinating adventure!
The Great Embankment is in Pittsford, NY.
@@thomaskesel5703 ... I think it's technically Bushnell's Basin, but yes, Pittsford zip code and Fairport school district (IIRC). What a weird corner of the county. :) (I'm in Fairport)
Thanks Simon. Born and brought up in the Erie area, (next to the Welland Canal) you taught me more about the area I have so often travelled through and always knew of but never KNEW about than all the years living in the region taught me. Gotta love the internet and of course, Mega Projects.
my man simon! dropping another banger of a video. keep em coming
So glad you created this video. Living in Buffalo, the Erie Canal is vital to our local history... its the reason our metro area even exists.
I live like 2 mins from a segment of it and the old locks that are dry are really cool to go explore
Ditto
In the mid 1970's I was crew on a sailboat delivery from just south of Detroit, Michigan to Fort Meyers, Florida. We used the Eric Canal to get to the Hudson River. I remember a lot of locks, especially near the Hudson. From the Hudson to Delaware Bay, through another canal to Chesapeake Bay then down the Intercostal waterway to Florida, across Lake Okeechobee then down to Ft. Meyers. 3 months, in autumn, cold... wonderful!
omg the slaughter of the city names is killing me lol.
He got "Utica" right though, that is pretty amazing
I only noticed Genesee being wrong. I thought he did pretty well besides that.
Welcome to a Simon Whistler channel lol.
Brits really butcher American Indian place names.
@@Eedg769 Utica was named after a famous Mediterranean city.
Worked and traveled the eastern half of Ohio last year. Evidence of the extensive canal system crisscrossed the landscape, running mostly parallel to roadways and rail beds. Likely unnoticed by most, ghosts of transportation past. Fascinating. Thanks for the excellent content 💫
Here is a megaproject. The USS Monitor. She may not have been huge, but the impact on naval warfare was massive. She ended wooden sailing warships and warships with rows of guns, had more than 40 patentable components, and the world's first rotating turret ever to be used in battle. She is the true ancestor to all modern warships.
How cool! My Childhood home is right next to the Maumee-Wabash-Cannonbal canal, and now I live right next to the Ohio and Erie Canal. Bothe are practically in the backyards. Now they're both nature parks with the towpaths as trails for my 10k's. For people with no e xperience i canal building to build pathways longer than Europe, Very impressive. To quote the Chunnel episode, Engineering is a wonderful thing
To a Brit 100 miles is a long journey, and to an American 100 years is a long time.
To an American 100 miles is a commute.
I was raised 2 blocks from the old Erie. It always amazed me how they could build this through such difficult terrain. I can imagine quietly passing through the wilderness in the 1800s. I wonder how many famous people cruised through my small town at the maximum speed of 4 mph
Yeah, but 4 mph back when it was built was like the autobahn
He meant to say the war of 1812, but it's understandable, he has so many videos!
Yeah I thought I heard that small mistake also, I had to rewind to be sure. Like you said the information concentration is so strong a misspeaking is understandable!
He just didn't cause it brings up bad Brit memories 😂
@@dejomatic The Brits won the war of 1812
@J Jones
It is clear the US lost.
I was a bit confused, lol.
Loved it, great job. Life long New Yorker, there is a million stories to be told about the channel and its transformation of NYS.
Nice! One of my recommendations made it!
I grew up about 5 miles from the Erie Canal outside of Rochester NY. Always fun to ride the canal path or fish the bays in the summer.
There are a lot of towns in Michigan named after towns in Upstate New York: Rochester, Utica, Ithaca to name a few. You can see in these place names the settlement patterns, as people migrated along the canal and through the Great Lakes.
There's actually a "colony" from Buffalo called New Buffalo in Michigan. :)
Yep, same thing in Wisconsin. I grew up between Rome and Utica NY and now I live in Wisconsin near Rome and Utica WI.
I grew up a few miles east of Rome. The Erie Canal was about a thousand feet across the road from our house. Four great transportation routes lay about a half mile from my front door. The Erie Canal, the Mohawk River, the NY Central RR -three tracks wide, and the NY Barge Canal. The Mohawk River was the original transportation thoroughfare as Native Americans could travel by canoe from Lake Ontario on Wood Creek to Rome, called De-O-Wain-Sta, (The Great Carrying Place). From there canoes were carried one to four miles to the Mohawk River that flowed to the Hudson River. As kids in the 1950’s and 1960’s we would play, hunt and fish in the Mohawk River. The canal was and is heavily overgrown with trees and undergrowth. It was a fun childhood.
Did you ever go to the Erie Canal Village there in Rome as a kid? and howdy from a bit east of Rome - Schoharie Crossing here in Fort Hunter, Montgomery County, New York
@@SchoharieCrossing1825 The village wasn’t there yet before I left in 1967, and I didn’t go see it on past visits. The ft Stanwix was not recreated before I left, but I toured it once in the 1970’s.
Oregon is roughly size of the United Kingdom.
We think of a 4hr drive as a day trip..
If I spend 2 hours going anywhere, im likely expecting to stay overnight xD
@@TheOnlyTrueHD3H jesus, you guys need to move closer to work or some shit
Alexander1485
All the highest paying jobs are near big cities.
Living in big cities is incredibly expensive and consumes most of your $
Only way to get ahead for most involves a commute.
@@fastinradfordable i never said live in a big city, live in the burbs, ffs
My commute is is 4 hours return.
Texas is the size of Australia’s smallest states.
Thanks for this video. I moved to the Utica area over a decade ago and have loved learning about the canal. So to see more about it is great.
I wished that the Erie Canal tree stump puller would have had its 15 seconds of fame courtesy of Mr. Whistler.
I hiked 124 miles of the 185 miles of the Chesapeake Ohio canal tow path an absolute loved it so beautiful i would recommend it 👌
The Erie Canal was postponed by the War of 1812 not the American Civil War.
yeah there was some factual problems with this one. The great embankment and the Genesee river are near Rochester NY not Lockport.
View at 5:25 is that of the Erie Canal in downtown Syracuse, NY... about midpoint to the Hudson...
Malaria also killed large numbers of people when the Rideau Canal was being built. All of the labourers died of the disease in the area around the village of Seeleys Bay. The area where the malaria occurred was in a marshy lake that was given the name Mosquito Lake(the name was later called Opinicon Lake because it was in poor taste to name the lake after the animals which killed the labourers).
Living in the village at Lock 15 along the present day canal, I found this fascinating. Not only for the information held within but also the fact that Simon Whistler felt it important enough to make a video about it.
Today's Lock 15? Fort Plain?
@@davidbrooks4621 Yep.
@@beckeb00 Nice! I'm familiar - pre-pandemic visits to the Highwheeler and the Antique Store were at least a once a month adventure! The Lock there is nice too - small little park along its chamber. Hit up the Fort Plain Museum at all? Nice RevWar conferences they've put on.
Got a mule her name is Sal... 15 miles on the Erie Canal...
@Robert Anna What makes you think I didn't. Spent a good deal of time in upstate NY.
@Robert Anna Not one I'm familiar with...
An original and unexpanded section of the canal is right in my backyard. My village was built up around a dry dock and a few mills along the canal. The mills were powered a nearby stream, which passed under an aqueduct in the canal, to process grain that was being shipped on the canal.
Today the canal towpath is now a great park, and will soon offer a complete walkway from Buffalo to Albany.
Chittenango?
@@SchoharieCrossing1825 yes
@@Scootin159 Love the Canal Boat Landing Museum there!
I LIVE DOWN THE ROAD FROM THIS
In this case you can probably tell me:
I don't quite understand why the western half of the canal was even necessary... The canal route goes through Oneida Lake and from there there seems to be the Oswego river running straight into Lake Ontario.
Why would you build 200 km of canal just 15 km parallel to the shores of the lake?
Surely it would have been easier to just make the Oswego fit for ships, and it seems they did this a few years later.
@@MirageGSM one word: Niagara. At the time the Welland Canal wasn't built. So they'd just be stuck in the Falls torrent. Thats why the Erie Canal Ran just upstream from the falls
@@redlightning2322 exactly - not all rivers are passable and this really was the main route for commerce for a WHILE, certain parts were enlarged several times, etc......Clinton's Ditch is now the bottling company name for the local pepsi bottler too which is kinda neat imo
@@redlightning2322 Makes sense, but from what I can see the Welland canal was completed just 4 years after the Eerie canal.
@@MirageGSM which means that Erie was planned in advanced before welland was a thought.
As a Rochester, NY native, I just say nice job with all the Native American place names in this episode!
Mega projects Suggestion: SS Normandie one of the largest and expensive(1,000,000,000 dollars adjusted for inflation) transatlantic liner built and a former blue riband holder and her lost in WW2 was also one of the biggest and expensive salvage operation ever overtaken at that time
YES YEEEEESSSSS A THOUSAND TIMES YES. I love ocean liners so goddamn much. Also the SS United States and any if the Queens for Cunard.
If your doing the Normandie though you have the Queen Mary also. Those two ships are intertwined with one another
I live in the Buffalo area and have always been interested in the history of the canal. This is excellent! Thanks!
Low bridge! Everybody down
Low bridge! 'Cause we're coming to a town
Every NY kid should now have Sal stuck in their head. :)
As one German girl says. In Europe travel is talked about by distance and in America its talked about in time of travel.
That's true.
In Europe 100 miles is far. In America 100 years is old.
In Texas we use distance.
@@Caddowolf Yeah, remember how distances were measured by "Day's Ride?" (Maybe they still call it a certain number of "Hour's Ride?") Stay safe.
That's because if I was to tell you that my average weekly commute is around 1250 kilometers, you wouldn't believe it. But when I tell you that I live almost 70 miles/112 km from work, and a one way trip takes just over an hour, that sounds more believable. If a European drives for six hours, in any direction, they're in another country. Meanwhile, a six hour drive for me means another four until I reach a different State.
I live a few miles from the Erie Canal! Cool video as always.
That canal made the State of NY so great that it was called Empire State
I think Ellis Island and NYC did that...but it was OG NYC when working-class people had apartments in Midtown. It wasn't Hedge Fund, Cronut, Brunch-In-Brooklyn NYC. How sad it is now :(
The name probably predates the canal: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State
Another spot on details for an excellent video of a magnificent and glorious waterway to walk along. Would of been a busy place in its day.
@2:42 When Simon leaves out Wisconsin feelsbadman
Former New Yorker here that relocated in Wisconsin. I used to play on the ice of old sections of canal and in the summer I would ride my bike on the tow path. Lots of connections between Wisconsin and NY.
I live near a section of the old Lake Champlain feeder canal system and go walking on the towpaths. It's still quite wonderful and some of the working lockes in our area provide tremendous fishing access. It was a sense of achievement of mine to see a trickle of water on Mount Marcy become the mighty Hudson River all being accomplished on foot and in a bit of remoteness. It's odd being a New Yorker who has only seen the city and never set foot within, but trod over the Adirondacks, including her 46 High peaks in all 4 seasons, then south and west on the rivers, the canal systems, in old mines, and above mentioned towpaths.
Near the Glens Falls Feeder? The Champlain trail is pretty awesome as well!
If you’re doing this you should definitely do the st. Laurence river in Canada/America
And the Welland Canal.
was the st lawrance river a project that was dug? im genuinely asking - was it somehow a project or just a natural feature which was always my assumption becasue if just natural then maybe geographics but not here
@@OsX86H3AvY I assume he means the St Lawrence Seaway and Power Project. In the early 50s they dredged the wonderful rapids and flooded many towns to create canals and power dams.
@@townsaver766 ok I gotchya I hadn't known that
@@OsX86H3AvY When Europeans arrived in the area, the farthest up river you could sail was the city of Montreal. Building the St Lawrence Seaway allowed ocean going ships to get into the Great Lakes and between the Great lakes. The Welland Canal, paralleling the Niagara rive between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario has existed since the same time frame as the Erie Canal, but it was expand to allow ships from the ocean to traverse it as part of the ST Lawrence Seaway project. I believe there were smaller canals that allowed boats to get along the St Lawrence into Lake Ontario, then up the Rideau Canal into Ottawa. There is also a canal allowing access from the St Lawrence river into the Ottawa river and then up to Ottawa, but it wasn't expanded as part of the Seaway project.
Loved the video. I live in PA and the Canal had a pretty huge impact on the state economy which helped my area to rebuild after the Civil War. It was those same German masons that rebuilt the bridge burned in Wrightsville to stop the Confederate advance.
I've got two video ideas for you:
Mega Projects could cover the current efforts to plug up the millions of abandoned oil wells in the US and Canada.
Side projects could cover the pig iron furnaces in Marietta, PA; coal mining in Centralia and logging industry along the Susquehanna River that enabled the creation of Pittsburgh's steel works and led to the Industrial Revolution.
No mention of the great mule "Sal" Surprised you missed this part of the story!
Just looked it up, the time savings was huge! Before the canal, it took 15 to 45 days to travel the distance by wagon. After it took 9 days. The cost before for freight was about $125 a ton and after $6 a ton.