"The Canal: A need - A solution" by Ken Mountain
In 1699, the French Court sent an emissary to evaluate shipping potentials of the Great Lakes. The visionary looked at Niagara Falls and said “Holy cow Pierre, look at that!” They talked about the difficulties in any commercial shipping on these waters. The local Indians (Tonawanda Seneca) created several trails down the steep escarpment to the lower Niagara River or Lake Ontario. The most direct route was not acceptable; in fact, for any heavy loads, a detour of 15 to 30+ miles would be required. In any event there was not any suitable solution to transfer any significant cargo.
Their findings detailed how shipping could be accomplished. All that had to be done was for someone to dig a canal from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. Simple! Then all of wealth of the Great Lakes could be harvested. Then it struck him that the only “treasures” he could identify were commodities that were plentiful locally. For the next 100 years, give or take a few years, the place was left to the few settlers and land developers and speculators.
Meanwhile, the heavy thinkers pondered such issues as how to climb a nearly 200 foot water slide. Even with a short Erie-Ontario canal, there existed several other obstacles to overcome. One problem: How to navigate those pesky 1000 Islands without adequate navigational maps or aids. Another problem was: How to get past the shallow waters of the Saint Lawrence River. Still another problem was: How to get past the ice floes of the North Atlantic. All of this was required to deliver a worthy payload at a reasonable cost, in a 120 day shipping season. Perhaps, as some of the pessimists would say, it was better to ponder the snow and placement of a waterwheel and forget this trenching folly.
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Then a political upstart, the mayor of New York City, revived the thoughts of creating this inland passage. He had a lame-brained idea that a waterway from the Great Lakes to New York City would once and for all eliminate Boston and Philadelphia as candidates to become the premier port of the newly-established country. These were pretty heady ambitions for a mere island, worth just 60 Guilders ($24.00)!
Despite a presidential veto (Madison) of authorizing legislation, DeWitt Clinton established a commission to study and determine the best routes and methods of financing such an enterprise. The group was staffed by engineers from Holland, England, and Germany. These players were chosen because of their collective knowledge of classical engineering, finance, and the practical considerations of water level control.
The plan was to use as much of the natural features of the terrain as
possible, existing waterways and serve as much as possible, commercial centers,
and to minimize the amount of digging as possible. The route, and spurs is shown as Figure 1. This route was able to service Rochester, Syracuse, and the Albany/Tri-Cities areas. It made extensive use of the Mohawk River.
Figure 1
The next figure (2.) depicts the water levels at various places to “iron-out” the Niagara Falls precipitous drop. The locations of the locks are shown. The greatest drop occurs at Lockport. This drop was required to compensate for the escarpment.
Figure 2
Canal Water Level Contour/Profile
Financing was to include bonds against expected revenues generated by tolls and fees. Work started in 1817/1818 in various locations, including the system of sophisticated locks and controls. The controls were subtle and generally transparent. The western terminal of the chosen route was the Niagara River at the confluence of Tonawanda Creek. The little settlement was Tonawanda. Subsequent legislative actions (as a result of the canal survey activities), created North Tonawanda. North Tonawanda quickly became dominate by virtue of the natural sluice created by Tonawanda Island (see Figure 3), a sawmill, and demand for canal shoring timbers.
Figure 3
North Tonawanda - Landsat
Tonawanda Island also provided superior waterfront and berthing facilities. (see Figure 4)
Figure 4
Superior Waterfront
So North Tonawanda became the de facto western terminal of the canal. It is located midway between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. The northern boundary of Erie County; hence the name “Erie Barge Canal”.
Figure 5
Construction-Dredging operations
Shortly thereafter, Clinton was elected to serve as Governor, lost a re-election bid, and returned to private life. After four years, “canal-fever” hit hard. He re-entered politics and was re-elected as Governor in time to be on the first complete canal voyage. This trip was on the “Seneca Queen”, from the Niagara River (North Tonawanda) to New York City. This single event was to herald over 100 years of growth and expansion.
The canal was an immediate success. It permitted the relatively inexpensive transfer of raw materials and finished goods.
Figure 6
Typical Early Operations
(Tow Path runs entire length of Canal)
This established New York City as the nation's premier port. Tonnage records were set on a daily basis. The canal proved to be an economic success, showing a net profit during the very first year of operation. “DeWitt’s Dream” and “Clinton’s Folly” proved to be words to eat. The real economic value of the canal will never be known, however, the development it spurred would have to be measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
(Photo credits: North Tonawanda City Website, personal archives of Ken Mountain)
Copyright 2004, Ken Mountain
kelco@neto.com
"Ken Mountain is a systems engineer and history buff, who takes an analytical approach to studying history and his writing style combines the historical facts he gathers with a sytems approach to logic and the possibilities of how events played out in times gone by."