Erie Canal Videos and Images at LowBridgeProductions.com

The 21 videos found on our GRAND ERIE CANAL CLASSROOM COLLECTION DVD are listed below. To view the videos - along with other images and information - click the video buttons on the left.

George Washington knew how important it was for America to find a trade route across the formidable Appalachian Mountain chain to the west.

His experience as a surveyor and as a British officer fighting the French when he was young taught him just how impregnable the mountains were to the movement of heavy cargoes.

Washington became convinced of the practicality of canalizing the Potomac River. Unfortunately, his canal never succeeded in making it across the mountains as he'd dreamed that it would.

In a letter to the Governor of Virginia in 1785, Washington pointed out that America had powerful adversaries who would be glad to win the affections of our settlers west of the Appalachians through trade.

Washington's Pivot

George Washington was more than just the father of our country: He was also one of the earliest canal builders in American History.

This photograph looking westward across the Appalachian Chain in New York State - here called the Adirondack Mountains - reveals why a canal was able to succeed here: The Mohawk River did the work of cutting a groove across the mountains, providing the only place north of Georgia that would allow a canal to cross to the west. Today the river is canalized; but in its first century the Erie was a towpath canal. It's course then in this section was south (left) of the river, approximately where you now see the NYS Thruway.

Unlike all the other eastern rivers, only the Mohawk in New York State flows ACROSS the mountains to the Atlantic. How different our history would be today if that river had instead run westward into Lake Ontario!

Water supply was also a concern. When they began construction on the original Erie on July 4, 1817, where do you suppose they started? That's right: There was no use in digging a canal that was going to run dry. They had to find out whether or not the flow of the Mohawk River at Rome could keep up with the canal's needs... and of course we know today, that it could.

A Startling Discovery

Without this natural miracle, there was no early 19th-century engineering skill that could have made the Erie Canal possible.

This drawing depicts a naval battle that took place on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812. Both countries must have carried an awareness for many years afterward, that hostilities between Canada and the United States remained a possibility in this region.

Both countries embarked on canal-building programs in the years after the War of 1812. Fortunately though, neither country had to worry about hostilities over this border again.

No one wanted to load and reload cargoes back and forth between canal boats and lake ships. The decision to make the Erie a continuous towpath canal gave New York a big competitive advantage over the Canadian canal system.

War with Canada

It's hard to imagine a time when our Canadian neighbors weren't the friends they are today.

There were no engineering colleges in America then, but Benjamin Wright was named the CHIEF ENGINEER of the canal project; and today is known as The FATHER OF AMERICAN CIVIL ENGINEERING.

We may not have had schools that taught canal engineering then; but the countryside of England was laced with canals. Canvass White was sent to England by the Canal Comission to learn what he could. During construction, Canvass solved a major problem when he discovered and patented hydraulic cement; but unfortunately he was never fully rewarded for the contribution it made to the canal's success.

Like many lawyers in the early nineteenth century, James Geddes was also a skilled surveyor. He became one of the principal surveyors of the Erie's original route; and was probably best known for having discovered a level route across the hilly terrain east of Rochester. Without that, the Erie would have been forced to use Lake Ontario to the north, requiring costly transfers of cargoes back and forth between canal boats and lake ships (see The Great Embankment).

Like the other designers of various parts of the Erie, Nathan Roberts had no specific training in canal building at all. He was a teacher who - like many educated people of the day - was well versed in many fields. Nathan Roberts submitted an idea for the problem of getting boats to climb the quick rise of sixty feet at Lockport; and when his plan was accepted, he was given the job of supervising the construction of what would become Lockport's famous FLIGHT OF FIVE locks.

Key Players

New York Governor Dewitt Clinton credited Jesse Hawley - whose writings from a debtor's prison in Canandaigua first alerted the Governor to the idea of a canal.

The Great Embankment over the Irondequoit Creek just east of Rochester was one of the Erie's most formidable engineering challenges.

Unstable soils here contributed to the constant threat of leaks. This picture of a blowout in 1911 shows the concrete liner built into the modern Barge Canal.

The Great Embankment

In the winter of 1809, a surveyor peered through his transit instrument just east of Rochester, and with a grin gasped a single word: "Eureka"!

Both horses and mules were used on the Erie; but if the images we have today are any indication, mules quickly became the tow-animal of choice for most barge operators.

Mules are a cross between a horse and a donkey; and their smaller size than horses made stable space on the barges practical. Stable space meant that with two teams, a barge could haul 24/7, making the Erie a fast superhighway for heavy cargoes by early nineteenth-century stardards.

Teams generally did shifts of six hours on and six hours off. Here the two tired mules are being loaded into their stall on the barge; but this one apparently prefers the green grass alongside the towpath to the dry hay in his cramped home. The drivers waste little time with this kind of nonsense, winching him aboard with a block and tackle pulled by the mule's partner at the far right of the picture.

Erie Canal Mules

Steam power had just arrived on the scene; but animal power would continue to propel the Erie's barges during its first century

Joseph Ellicott was the resident agent of the Holland Land Company in what would become Western New York State.

The land in Western New York State steps lower as you move from the south toward Lake Ontario to the north. Notice that Lake Erie is 570 feet above sea level; and that the only course eastward that was low enough to receive the lake's water by gravity was far to the north.

Joseph Ellicott (picture seen to the left) was the general agent managing sales of land parcels in this entire region then; and it was his job to increase profits for his employer whenever he could. When he learned that the canal was to cross far to the north, he sent one of his best surveyors - William Peacock (seen here) - to survey an alternate route to the south that would have increased land values more than the northern route would.

Ellicott's route was rejected; and the result was that the Erie Canal would throughout history enjoy a flow of water that could never run dry, no matter how dry the summers, or how busy the traffic through its locks.

The Southern Route

The Erie Canal was the best thing that could have happened to the Holland Land Company; but Joseph Ellicott still thought he could improve the deal for his employer.

Lockport's famous FLIGHT OF FIVE was an engineering marvel in its day.

This and the two images that follow are all of Lockport's famous FLIGHT OF FIVE locks; but each is of a different version of the canal. This colorized version of a famous woodcut shows a packet boat with its passengers standing on the roof for a better view of the locks. Actually, they had no choice, as the narrow locks left little room on passenger craft for walkways alongside the cabins.

This stereoview photograph of the locks of the enlarged Erie (ca 1850-1918) catches several of the lock staff taking a break between their duties. The beams they're sitting on were called BALANCE BEAMS because unlike the modern lock gates used today that are made out of large sheets of welded steel, the gates then were made with fitted pieces of wood. Like an old screen door that tends to sag over time, the weight of these lock gates had to be offset to assure a tight fit when they were closed. That was accomplished by using these push beams with heavy enlarged portions at the end opposite the gate. Note the wooden treads - wide enough for only one man - built under the beams for traction when it rained. Keep in mind as you look at this picture that the series of locks you see on the left are still there today! Their gates were removed, allowing the channel to serve as a spillway for excess water at the site.

This overview shows just one end of lock #34 in the modern NYS Barge Canal at Lockport. Today, two of these mammoth locks do the same work as all ten of the original flight.

The Flight of Five

Five locks were needed to make the quick rise of sixty feet at Lockport. To avoid delays, a second flight was constructed right alongside, for traffic moving in the other direction.

The Deep Cut south of Lockport was the last obstacle to be overcome before Lake Erie water could flow eastward.

This famous woodcut shows the struggle against solid rock in the original Erie's DEEP CUT just south of Lockport. One of the biggest problems was how to get the excavated rock out of the channel. The problem was solved when someone came up with the idea of building these cranes to hoist it out. Piles of excavated rock - mostly from subsequent enlargements - are still evident alongside this section today.

This photograph looking north in the modern Barge Canal was taken in 2005.

This postcard is a photograph taken in the Deep Cut probably between 1900 and 1910. Blasting for the modern Barge Canal enlargement would begin soon on the opposite side of the channel, as traffic pulled by mules had to continue throughout construction. This picture gives us a rare glimpse of what the mule teams and their drivers saw. The view is facing south.

This composite shows the same stretch of the canal from different perspectives. The two arrows are pointing to the same towpath in each image. The top right is a colorized postcard published in probably about 1910. It depicts the ENLARGED Erie (ca 1862-1918). The winter shot was taken in 2007. It shows the same towpath - now abandoned - which remained in operation while the new Barge Canal excavations were being made on the other side of the channel (i.e. the near side in this picture).

The Final Obstacle

They saved the hardest for last: A thousand workers labored to create a channel in solid rock that was forty-feet deep... for SEVEN MILES!

There was one depression that actually helped our young country to grow.

Thomas Jefferson's best known connection with the Erie Canal is his famous quote warning that the whole project was... LITTLE SHORT OF MADNESS. He couldn't have known then, that one of the most valuable contributions of his presidency - namely the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 - had the unexpected outcome of creating an economic crisis in this country sixteen years later that greatly contributed to the Erie's completion.

The Canal began generating tolls at weighlocks like this one at Rochester even before the the waterway was finished; but a depression was triggered by our country's steps to raise the gold needed for a payment to France. Interest rates plummeted - lowering borrowing costs to the State, and unemployment in the country soared.

Fortunately, there was one place in the nation that was hiring. The flood of men to New York State looking for jobs lowered the labor cost by about thirty percent. The Erie Canal's construction would face many challenges; but fortunately, raising the roughly seven million dollars to pay for the work wasn't one of them.

A "Great" Depression

Depressions are never a good thing of course; but this particular one couldn't have come at a better time for the completion of the Erie Canal.

George Ward sings and discusses the most famous Erie Canal ballad of all.

Thomas Allen - the author of the Erie's most famous song of all - wrote songs that are often played by school bands today.

George Ward is a true Erie Canal Balladeer.

Fifteen Miles

Canal balladeer George Ward sings and discusses the most famous canal song of them all. Learn how to own his complete collection of Erie Canal songs at www.mulesong.com

No city benefitted more from the completion of the Erie Canal than did New York City at the mouth of the Hudson River

Both Philadelphia and Boston were nearly the same size as New York before the Erie Canal was completed in 1825.

That quickly changed when the Erie opened trade to the west! Later in the 1800s, wheat brought on the Erie Canal to New York City, and from there shipped to the Mediterranean, could be sold there for less than the local wheat farmers could produce it. European farmers by the thousands were forced out of business. Many boarded ships for the new world; and many of those landed at New York City.

New York became by far the preeminent city in America; and in time it even became a leader in world commerce.

The Erie's Cities

No city benefitted more from the completion of the Erie Canal than did New York City at the mouth of the Hudson River.

Salt deposits near today's Syracuse were important to the Erie's early success.

In the days before refrigeration and freezing, salt was important for preserving perishable foods - especially meat and fish. Syracuse in Central New York was a place where salt could be easily harvested; and the original canal was routed to pass near there.

oday salt can be mined from deep underground; but in the early nineteenth century, evaporating beds like these (called SALT SHEDS) were used to extract salt from sources near the surface.

By the early twentieth century, railroads had cut deeply into the canal's customer base; and the new Barge Canal's route would bypass Syracuse in favor of the canalized Seneca and Mohawk Rivers - and Oneida Lake - miles to the north.

Salt City

Salt was an essential commodity in the early nineteenth century much as it is today; and it's no accident that the Erie's route included the salt sheds at today's Syracuse.

New York State has maintained a bankwatch program on the Erie Canal since its earliest days.

When the Erie Canal was enlarged to its present size in 1905-1918, most of the western sections became elevated above the surrounding grade. It was in these sections that leaks were especially worrisome.

84-year-old Tom SNEAKERS Ashbery was a NYS Canal Corporation bankwalker. His job was to walk over five miles down one side of the canal: Then he'd cross over a country bridge and walk the five miles back again on the other side - all the while watching and listening for running water. He repeated that every day from April through November while the canal was filled. This picture shows Sneakers walking his beat in 2005, two years before he died.

Bankwatch

New York State has maintained a "bankwatch" program to watch for leaks in the Erie Canal since its earliest days - wherever the canal was above the surrounding grade.

Passengers faced serious delays at the locks between Schenectady and Albany.

Early passengers traveling on the Erie Canal were often shuttled the eighteen miles between Albany and Schenectady by stagecoach, rather than being asked to endure delays at the sixteen locks between the two cities.

The date of this advertisement is unknown; but it hints at the origin of the expression TWO BITS.

The First Railroad

Passengers were shuttled the 18 miles between Schenectady and Albany, rather than being asked to endure the delays at the sixteen locks there.

Pictures can't convey the size difference between the two older canals and the modern Barge Canal that we see today. Every time one of the modern Erie's mammoth 300 feet long locks is cycled, 100,000 gallons PER FOOT OF RISE passes downstream. How could the Mohawk River possibly keep up with that much water flowing off the Rome Summit? A reservoir was needed.

This picture of the new dam just a few miles north of Rome shows a small spillway that doubled as a service canal for use between the dam and the city of Rome. Roads of course soon made the service canal unnecessary; and today it's a foot path across the river for fishermen and hikers.

In all, over two-hundred buildings were either razed, moved, or left to be flooded in order to build the new DELTA LAKE.

The Village of Delta

The massive locks of the modern NYS Barge Canal were going to need more water than the Mohawk River could provide without help. What was needed was a reservoir.

During WWI, when steel was in short supply, they built a fleet of concrete barges for use on the new Barge Canal.

During World War I, there was a need for barges on the newly completed NYS Barge Canal. The problem was, there was also a shortage of steel then because of the war. The solution? The Federal Government authorized the construction of a fleet of 21 barges for the Erie made out of concrete.

Canals are a logical place to use a boat made out of concrete; but concrete still wasn't the best choice of materials.

The boats saw an average service life of five years; and those that survived the war years were lined up and sunk as erosion-control structures alongside locks in the eastern section.

Concrete Barges

The modern Barge Canal was finished just in time for WWI; but steel was in short supply because of the war. The solution? Why not concrete?

The federal government took control of the Erie Canal during World War I.

By the end of the nineteenth century, railroads challenged the relevance of a canal built for mule teams and towropes. In response, New York State made the expensive decision to enlarge the Erie one last time.

The new BARGE CANAL would handle ships like this one - built just small enough to be able to fit into the new canal's mammoth locks. After World War I, a fleet of nearly a hundred ships like this filled the Erie with paying commercial traffic.

Commercial traffic on the Erie ended in 1994 when this very ship was taken out of service. The 259' long motorship Day Peckinpaugh rests at Lockport in the summer of 2005 before making the final leg of its journey eastward to Troy on the Hudson River. The plans are to turn the ship into a floating Erie Canal museum.

Wartime Transition

The Federal Government took control of the Erie Canal during WWI; but why was it slow to return control to New York State after the war?

A new technology came on the scene just in time to make the enlargement to the Erie's present size possible.

A new technology came on the scene just in time for the final enlargement of the Erie Canal. Direct current electricity from gasoline generators like this one - or from water turbines using the flow of the Erie itself - made it possible with the clever use of counterweights to actually lift canal bridges when necessary.

The caption on this postcard points out that liftbridges like this one at Albion were especially common in the western section. The reason for that is that when the canal was enlarged for the last time in 1905-1918, the eastern section was very different from the west. In the east, there were rivers that could be converted into a canal. In the west, there weren't any. That meant that the entire western section had to be widened and raised up to accomplish the Barge Canal's 12-feet depth requirement. Raising the canal wasn't a problem in the countryside, but it was in the villages, where masonry buildings had been built in some places within a few feet of the canal.

This is the same bridge as the one shown in the postcard. The two pictures are taken from opposite sides of the bridge. Between these two photographs are 90 years of history that saw two world wars fought and won, the rise of the United States to become the dominant economic and military power in the world, and - in 1994 - the end of the Erie's long commercial success story.

Lifting the Bridges

A new technology came on the scene just in time to make the enlargement to the Erie's present size possible.

Jim Brennan was the oiler on the Day Peckinpaugh motorship.

Today the Erie Canal includes the Seneca and Mohawk Rivers, and Oneida Lake. The Oswego Canal connects the Erie with Lake Ontario, but before the modern Barge Canal enlargement in 1918, cargoes had to be loaded back and forth between lake vessels and the small mule-drawn canal boats.

Ships like the Day Peckinpaugh were built to be large enough for the Great Lakes; but at the same time small enough to fit into the locks of the new canal.

This ship was commissioned in 1921. It was the very first to be built specifically for Erie service in the new Barge Canal. Fatefully, it was also the LAST ship to be taken out of service when it was mothballed by its owner in Erie, PA in 1994. In 2005 it was rescued from the cutter's torch by a cooperative effort led by the Canal Society of NY, the NYS Museum in Albany, and the NYS Canal Corporation. Today it's being converted to what will become a floating Erie Canal exhibition.

The End of an Era

In 1994 the Erie Canal's long commercial success story came to an end. Jim Brennan was the oiler on the last boat to remain in service.

Each year sees an annual ritual at this and other gates in the Erie Canal.

It's April; and the NYS Canal Corporation crew has brought a generator to power these two massive guard gates near Pendleton up, allowing water to flow from lake Erie to the southwest... north toward the locks of Lockport.

The process of filling the entire canal takes a few days to complete.

The gates are cracked slightly at first, letting the water in slowly to prevent the shore from eroding.

Other gates like this one will along the Erie's route will also be opened; but this one at Pendleton stands out from all of those, as it was on - or very near this spot in the autumn of 1825 when another set of gates was opened, letting Lake Erie water flow though this channel for the very first time EVER. In that moment, the course of our nation - and in time of the world - was changed forever, as the United States finally had its trade route across the formidable Appalachian Mountain Chain; and a young seaboard nation's grasp now reached to the center of a continent.

Cracking Pendleton

Each spring, this same ritual is repeated here and at other gates like this throughout the system; but none of those are as meaningful as this one.

The videos that follow don't appear on our DVD, and are presently only available here.

Two straight roads were cut through the wilderness.

Joseph Ellicott was the resident agent of the 3.3 million acre tract of land known as the Holland Land Purchase. In 1799 he ordered these two survey lines that ran all the way from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario. Because this was all a wilderness then, the survey required that a path be cleared through the trees.

The eastern line was the eastern boundary of the Holland Land Purchase; but what determined the exact location of the western line - that met Lake Ontario here in today's Town of Newfane in Niagara County?

The western line - at least in this northern region - was kept opened through the years by use. How do we know? Today NY Route 78 traces Ellicott's straight survey line northward from Amherst near Buffalo, right into the City of Lockport (see the video for images). Is it just a coincidence that this road crossed the Erie Canal at one of its most historic locations? It's estimated that there were only three families in Lockport in 1800, so it couldn't have been cut to reach a population there. Did Ellicott have the foresight to anticipate a canal that would probably climb the Niagara Escarpment in the gorge created by the Eighteen Mile Creek at Lockport? Maybe, but we know that in 1816 when Ellicott learned that the canal commission was in fact planning a route through Lockport, he sent a surveyor to find an alternate southern route that would have missed Lockport altogether (see ELLICOTTs SOUTHERN ROUTE above). We may never know why the western line was struck where it was; but we do know that when the army of laborers showed up to overcome the Erie's final obstacle, there was a road already there to meet them: A road that was cut over twenty years before - and that crossed the canal just one city block from one of the most important construction sites in American History.

Transit Roads

Straight roads are common of course, but not many can boast as much history as these two that cross the Erie Canal in Western New York State. (NOT INCLUDED IN DVD)

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