15 Miles on the Erie Canal
by Carolyn Ristau
The burgeoning United States needed to make the newly acquired Northwest Territory economically feasible. However, with the technologies of the time, the Allegheny Mountains created a barrier that made it prohibitively difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to move White people in and move goods out of the territories. The National Road and the Erie Canal were created to conquer these mountains.
The National Road originally connected Cumberland, Maryland, with Wheeling, West Virginia, which connected the shipping lanes of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. Begun in 1811 and completed in 1818, it was such a success at transporting settlers to the new territories that the Federal government continue to fund the construction of the road expanding it to Vandalia, Illinois, at which point an economic downturn dried up funds and construction stopped. The road never made it to the intended terminus on the Mississippi River.
The Erie Canal runs from Albany to Buffalo in New York and connects the shipping lines of the Hudson River and the Great Lakes. Construction began on the canal in 1817. By 1819, only the first section was completed — 15 miles between Rome and Utica.* When the canal was finished in 1825, it was 363 miles long. After completion, the canal was a major shipping route for, among other items, “lumber, coal, and hay” and enabled profitable loads to travel cheaply and quickly. What used to take two weeks, now took five days.
*Note: 15 miles is also how far a mule towing a barge on the canal would travel before resting or for being switched out for another animal.
Source & Inspiration:
Episode 8: “By Land or By Sea” from the Very Unofficial AICP Study Guide podcast
The National Road. National Park Service. (accessed April 22, 2023)
Erie Canal Song. (accessed April 22, 2023)
A National Treasure. Earie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. (accessed April 22, 2023)
Clinton’s Big Ditch. The Erie Canal. (accessed April 22, 2023)
