The Key Players
Images & Video
Thomas Jefferson
President Thomas Jefferson was NOT a proponent of the Erie Canal! When he heard of the idea of digging a canal across New York State in 1809, he said:"Making a canal 350 miles through a wilderness is little short of madness......perhaps in a hundred years."
Dewitt Clinton
The real hero of the Original Erie's construction was New York's Governor Dewitt Clinton. He wasn't alone of course, but the canal was so closely associated with him that its opponents called the project "Clinton's Ditch" in an attempt to bring him down when the canal project failed. It backfired on them though, when the canal's overwhelming success propelled the Governor to unparalleled popularity."May the God of Heavens and the earth smile most propitiously on the work, and render it subservient to the best interests of the human race."
- Gov Dewitt Clinton at the opening ceremony marking the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825
