[image]
[title]Two hundred years ago, a group of New Yorkers had a truly wild idea: To build a waterway linking the Hudson River to the Great Lakes in an effort to avoid those pesky Appalachian Mountains, which stretched 1,500 miles from Maine to Alabama and made the transportation of goods and settlement of people costly, arduous and time-intensive.
After a near-century of colonists mulling over how to use New York’s natural waterways effectively, New York legislators and businessmen began taking the idea seriously in the early-19th century. Construction on the canal then officially kicked off in 1817—led by New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. Eight years later, in October 1825, the Erie Canal was completed and a new era for New York State began: a golden age of commerce, culture and transportation. The massive project opened up larger swaths of the country to migration and helped solidify our national identity.
If all that isn’t enough to get you to care about the big bicentennial of New York’s most impactful waterway, here are five more reasons why you should be celebrating the Erie Canal’s birthday this year.
1. Without the Erie Canal, New York wouldn’t be the global powerhouse it is today
There’s a reason New York is called the Empire State and that nickname is largely tied to the Erie Canal. Thanks to the canal acting as a gateway to the country’s Midwest regions, as well as a facilitator for foreign trade from Britain and Canada and the primary port of entry for European immigrants in the early-to-mid 1800s, New York City officially became America’s commercial and industrial capital. It also fueled the population growth of fellow canalside cities throughout the state, including Buffalo, Albany, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica.
New York State’s current status as a formidable global force thanks to its economic scale, cultural influences, technological innovations and global connectivity can all be linked back to the early days of the Erie Canal.
2. The Erie Canal didn’t just transport goods, but also world-changing ideas
Yes, money is certainly important when discussing the canal’s history, but so are minds—the manmade waterway was also impactful in flowing transformative ideas and trailblazing movements throughout the U.S.
We’re talking social reform movements like abolitionism (the canal towpath served as one of the routes of the “Underground Railroad”) and women’s suffrage (the first convention for women’s rights took place in 1848 in Seneca Falls, only a few miles from the canal), as well as newfound religions like Mormonism, Adventism and Spiritualism.
By bringing in so many new people even deeper into the United States, the Erie Canal helped foster social innovations and a more cosmopolitan way of thinking.
3. We’re still uncovering the complexities of its history today
As well as overlapping with racial and gender history in early America, the Erie Canal is greatly connected to the indigenous communities that lived on the land we now call New York, long before Europeans settled here.
There can’t be a celebration of the transformative waterway without acknowledging the displacement and devastation of the Haudenosaunee peoples (composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora and Onondaga nations) during the advent of the canal. New York State is wisely not shying away from that complicated history in its bicentennial commemorations—the More Voices Initiative gives a spotlight not only to the indigenous communities whose lands were forever changed by the canal but also the diverse immigrant groups and African Americans who helped build the waterway and the culture along its banks.
4. Erie Canal towns make for some of the best weekend getaways in New York State
Along with the engineering wonder that is the canal itself—when built, the 363-mile canal was the second-longest in the world, after the Grand Canal in China—the towns and cities that rose along the Erie Canal are just as worthy of a visit.
You’ve got major upstate cities like Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, with their stellar food-and-drink scenes, world-class art institutions and lively cultural attractions, as well as quainter port destinations like Lockport, Fairport and Pittsford, with their historical charms, walkable downtowns and small-town personality. There’s a little something for every kind of traveler along the canal, whether you want picturesque nature or urban conveniences.
5. Because America itself wouldn’t be the same without it
It’s not an exaggeration to say that without the Erie Canal, the United States as we know it wouldn’t exist—beyond strengthening America as a real economic powerhouse, the canal brought in a broader spectrum of immigrants, infusing the nation with different languages, religious customs, cultural practices and more. In short, it had a substantial and lasting impact on what it means to be an American today, and that’s certainly something worth celebrating.