The Erie Canal: The man-made waterway that transformed the US

These type of lock-based canals are really beautiful and elegant pieces of engineering. Capable of lifting hundreds or even thousands of tons up-hill without the use of any motor, or engine and taking advantage of the natural gravity gradient adjacent to naturally occurring streams and rivers. In many ways they're literally powered by the water cycle created by the sun.

It's really interesting to understand that these were the technological state-of-the-art before the steam engine and were among the most advanced means of transportation technology on the planet after the big European sailing ships (which in turn were among the few technologies on the planet for hundreds of years capable of moving humans across around the surface of an entire planet relatively quickly).

Canal tech is so energy efficient that it's possible to move relatively large barges using only human power [1] (though it was far more common to use other large animals like horses or mules).

1 - The painter Ilya Repin famously captured this in a painting called the "Barge Haulers on the Volga" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barge_Haulers_on_the_Volga

The Erie Canal, and the rest of the entire navigate-able water system is relatively unknown, but is a huge huge reason why we have a United States of America, and not 50 different countries with fractured cultural, military and social histories.

The USA has more interior navigable rivers and waterways than the rest of the world combined. The Erie Canal's connection made it possible to circumnavigate the northeast, northwest, and a good chunk of the Midwest and Canada without ever leaving a protected waterway, thanks to the Mississippi system, New Orleans, barrier islands, and the Great Lakes.

It's just been in the news again recently because a 260 feet long pedestrian bridge, which was built in Italy, was floated up on barges to a park being built in Buffalo. Being able to transport this large structure by water helps avoid closing roads to traffic or navigating under low street bridges. It attracted crowds all the way up.

"This is a big deal because this used to be a commercial canal and nowadays it's not so this is an event"

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/ralph-c-wilson-bridg...

The old canal towpath is part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and just a few miles from my house. We hike and bike there frequently. The canal itself is mostly filled in with sediment and is little more than a damp trench punctuated with sections that are full of stagnant water (and some sections where the water flows). The various locks work like mile markers and are all still quite visible as they were renovated in concrete back in 1913 or so.

One near me, Ohio lock 31[1], has a frightening history of murder and danger. It was a very remote lock and bodies were dumped there as highwaymen operated with lethal intent. Now it is my turnaround point for hiking that stretch of the old towpath.

1 - https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/ohio/cleveland/lonesome-lock...

Buffalo native here (where the Erie Canal ends) - the Canal is very much in use still today. No horses pulling barges though anymore!

Big news in Buffalo this week was a new pedestrian bridge just pulled into town via the Canal after spending a few weeks winding its way across the state:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rwparkbuffalo/albums/721777203...

The canal system in the UK is also fascinating now. Not much freight traffic but a large number of pleasure canal boats. I've been on a couple of holidays on these and it is a great way to see some nature. Also fascinating to manoeuvre the boats, especially when you don't have bow thrusters, and virtually no steering in reverse. They are long and thin, and turn around their centres rather than 'following the front wheels' like a car. And some of the canals are only a few feet (or less) wider than the boats.

The canal network is also widely used by walkers since the vast majority of canals have tow paths and riverside pubs.

I live close to one of the oldest canals in Europe, the Finow Canal. It connects the Oder with the Havel and was constructed in 1605. The water locks are still operational but commercial freight has moved to the much larger and newer Oder-Havel Canal.

The old canal now has a bike path along most of the way, a very nice bicycle trip through the countryside north of Berlin.

Also there are beavers and kingfishers :)

Edit: also this of course, on the Oder-Havel Canal.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niederfinow_Boat_Lift

Hey Chicagoans! There are some real important canals in the Chicago area, especially the ones connecting it to the Mississippi (indirectly). Is there anything like this happening there?

I actually live in a home right on the old canal as it went through in southern Ohio. You can still see some of the old canal walls. Every time I see it, I get so bummed out the US bailed on canals as transport. You can check it out here!

https://www.stbernardhistory.org/rock-20-girl-scout-ln

And the inspiration for some beautiful guitar licks and sick shredding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwVxEAgDVZ8

The Chapo Traphouse podcast touched on the Erie Canal in Episode 557 "The Inebriated Past 10: Mormons, pt. 1", especially as the backdrop for the story of Joseph Smith and the creation, of course, of the Mormon church. It's a rousing tale told well beginning around 15 minutes in. The general thrust is that the burst of economic activity that both motivated the creation of and was in part sustained by the Erie Canal extended a tentacle of capitalistic social dislocation which, in part, was a factor in religious revival movements in upstate New York like the Mormons.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of this, of course. It could be just some guy yelling on the internet. I just thought it was interesting.

https://youtu.be/-cMs2BYo9nY?si=1AC8CidLpifN3Mno