Deck Log “Fifteen Years on the Erie Canal” – How About 200?! We are into the second year of the bicentennial celebrations of the Erie Canal, and you’re invited!
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igging for the ambitious project began in the summer of 1817, and the Erie Canal officially opened to vessel traffic eight years later, in 1825. Timber, minerals, and raw materials from the hinterland were floated along this route to the coast, while passengers and commercial goods were carried westward along the canal, opening up the Midwest and sprouting new towns and cities along its path. Within fifteen years of its opening, the canal transformed New York into the busiest port in America, moving tonnages greater than Boston, Baltimore, and New Orleans combined. With more than 500 continuous miles of navigable waters, 34 National Historic Landmarks, 24 state parks, and more than 800 listings on the National Register of Historic Places, this is a great time to plan your canal adventure. Maritime enthusiast that you are, when was the last time you took a canal boat ride, or stopped to watch how the locks worked on an American canal? You might have been sailing, reading history, visiting maritime museums, following historic ship restorations, or taking trips on boats and ships out in every kind of weather. But have you kayaked any of the canal’s thousand miles of navigable waters, chatted with lock tenders and harbor masters, explored century-old lift bridges and quaint canal communities, or biked along the Canalway Trail as it stretches from one end of the state to the other? library of congress “Clinton’s Ditch,” derisively nicknamed for the governor who undertook this wild project, originally ran 363 miles along a route dug forty feet wide and to a depth of four feet and included 83 locks. Considered a technological wonder in its time, the canal allowed boats to move from sea level at Troy, New York, to elevations as high as 565 feet above sea level at the Niagara River, making the Great Lakes and the frontier beyond accessible like never before. Since 1835, the Erie Canal has been expanded to handle larger barges and vessels. With branches along the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca waterways, the New York State Barge Canal System has grown to incorporate 524 miles of continuous navigable waters. I was fortunate to attend the New York State Canal Conference last month in Staten Island, New York, where the theme was “One Water” in recognition of the interconnectedness of New York’s canal communities and New York Harbor. We were reminded that one can still travel by boat from Buffalo to Albany, down the Hudson River, and out to sea and beyond. Here is your ticket to adventure! We have compiled maps, sample itineraries, historic resources, and more on our website at www.seahistory.org/eriecanal for you to use to start your journey. Low bridge, everybody down Low bridge for we’re coming to a town And you’ll always know your neighbor And you’ll always know your pal If you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal —Burchenal Green, President 4
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLISHER’S CIRCLE: Peter Aron, Guy E. C. Maitland, Ronald L. Oswald OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, Ronald L. Oswald; Vice Chairman, Richardo R. Lopes; President, Burchenal Green; Vice Presidents: Deirdre O’Regan, Wendy Paggiotta, Nancy Schnaars; Treasurer, Howard Slotnick; Secretary, Jean Wort; Trustees: Charles B. Anderson; Walter R. Brown; Christopher J. Culver; William S. Dudley; David S. Fowler; William Jackson Green; Karen Helmerson; Richard M. Larrabee; Guy E. C. Maitland; Capt. Brian McAllister; CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Ret.); Michael W. Morrow; CAPT James A. Noone, USN (Ret.); Richard Patrick O’Leary; Erik K. Olstein; ADM Robert J. Papp Jr., USCG (Ret.); Timothy J. Runyan; Richard Scarano; Philip J. Shapiro; Capt. Cesare Sorio; William H. White; TrusteeElect, Denise Krepp; Chairmen Emeriti: Walter R. Brown, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitland, Howard Slotnick FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1917–1996) PRESIDENT EMERITUS: Peter Stanford (1927–2016) OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown, USMS (Ret.); RADM Joseph F. Callo, USN (Ret.); George W. Carmany III; James J. Coleman Jr.; Clive Cussler; Richard du Moulin; Alan D. Hutchison; Gary Jobson; Sir Robin Knox-Johnston; John Lehman; Capt. James J. McNamara; H. C. Bowen Smith; John Stobart; Philip J. Webster; Roberta Weisbrod NMHS ADVISORS: George Bass, Francis Duffy, John Ewald, Timothy Foote, Steven A. Hyman, J. Russell Jinishian, Gunnar Lundeberg, Conrad Milster, William G. Muller, Stuart Parnes, Nancy Hughes Richardson, Joyce Huber SEA HISTORY EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Chairman, Timothy Runyan; Norman Brouwer, Robert Browning, William Dudley, Daniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, John Jensen, Joseph Meany, Carla Rahn Phillips, Walter Rybka, Quentin Snediker, William H. White NMHS STAFF: Executive Director, Burchenal Green; Membership Director, Nancy Schnaars; Membership Coordinator, Jean Marie Trick; Marketing Director, Steve Lovass-Nagy; Comptroller, Anjoeline Osuyah; Staff Writer, Shelley Reid; Director of Development, Jessica MacFarlane; Membership Assistant, Irene Eisenfeld SEA HISTORY: Editor, Deirdre O’Regan; Advertising, Wendy Paggiotta Sea History is printed by The Lane Press, South Burlington, Vermont, USA.
SEA HISTORY 165, WINTER 2018–19