has many projects that are known as the eighth miracle in the world, and Erie Canal in northern New York is one of them. This canal connects the banks of the Hudson River and the Lake Erie . It is 843 kilometers long and passes through more than 30 locks along the way. The river channel is 12 meters wide and has an initial depth of about 1.2 meters. It was built in October 1825 and costs about US$7 million (about US$160 million now). In terms of scale and construction difficulty, the Yili Canal is not outstanding in projects that are known as the eighth miracle in the world, but its construction has brought about tremendous changes in the political, economic and cultural landscape of the United States, and has played a key role in promoting the historical process of the United States.
Roll up your sleeves and cheer you up
North America is a continent rich in resources. The hinterland of , the great plain , fertile land. Since the colonial era, the rich land of lush water and grass has been constantly attracting people. However, east-west traffic in North America has always plagued the people on that land. Among them, about three to four hundred kilometers away from the Atlantic Ocean, there is an Appalachian Mountains that stretch thousands of kilometers north-south. There are very few roads that can pass through this mountain range, and without exception, it is difficult to walk. Thanks to the rugged terrain of Appalachian Mountains, before the 19th century, it took a month to take a carriage from New York to Detroit 00 kilometers away. The average journey to the daily distance is only 30 kilometers, which is not much faster than walking.
Since it is difficult to walk on land, some people think of water. However, looking at the rivers in eastern North America, such as Connecticut River, Hudson River , Delaware River, Lehai River, Susquehanna River, Piddy River, Savannah River, etc., most of them are north-south. When it comes to the main waterways that go east-west, there are only Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River . The waters of the Great Lakes are vast and there are rivers connected to each other. Logically speaking, there is no problem with the ships passing through. Once the waterways of the Great Lakes are opened, the Midwest and Plains in the hinterland of the United States will be connected with the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario , there is a barrier that ships cannot cross - Niagara Falls. This magnificent waterfall shows the magic of nature to mankind, but also poses a problem for mankind who is trying to use the Great Lakes as waterways.
Niagara Falls that block shipping
Schematic diagram of Niagara Falls: It blocks the natural waterway directly into the upper reaches of the Great Lakes from the Atlantic Ocean
As early as the 1780s, during the American War of Independence, it was proposed that a canal was dug upstream of the waterfall and near the Buffalo Buffalo on the side of Lake Erie, connecting Lake Erie with the important town on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, and helping the ship overcome the drop through artificial locks. However, due to war and economic difficulties, this opinion was not adopted. By the early 19th century, heavy industries such as coal and iron in the United States began to take off. At this time, it was urgent to open a shortcut between the industrial and commercial developed areas of the east coast of and the raw material production areas in the Midwest.
So, the proposal to build the canal many years ago was once again recalled. This time, people adjusted their thinking, not only connecting Buffalo and Rochester, but also connecting Rochester and Albany . In this way, ships in Lake Erie can not only pass through Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River, access the Atlantic Ocean through Canada, but also directly enter the Hudson River through the canal and enter the Atlantic Ocean from New York. Such a proposal was given attention, and the Erie Canal Committee was established in 1810 to be responsible for the planning and construction of the canal.
The Erie Canal Committee is affiliated with the New York State Government. The nominal chairman is Gulfneil Morris, the founding father of the United States and the author of the preamble to the US Constitution. But in fact, the person in charge was DeWitt Clinton, who was then the mayor of New York. After taking office, Clinton immediately led a team to survey and map the route to the canal. After several months of hard work, they submitted a planning report to New York State. The following year, according to the report, the State of New York revised a series of relevant laws and regulations to pave the way for the construction of the canal.One of the reasons why Clinton planned the Erie Canal so enthusiastically was that he was running for the US president, and the Erie Canal was the most affordable project he could think of to bring the United States. However, in 1812, Clinton's campaign failed, and a war broke out between the United States and Britain, and the construction of the Erie Canal was forced to be shelved.
Dwight Clinton
1815, after the war, the Erie Canal Committee convened its old subordinates and restarted the project. However, due to the war, New York State's finances were in trouble and there was not enough funds to support the construction of the canal. In 1817, Clinton was elected the sixth governor of New York. On behalf of New York, he stated to the federal government the benefits of building the Erie Canal and lobbying the federal government for funding. With his efforts, President Madison approved the payment of one-quarter of the Erie Canal construction budget, and he also found some foreign aid and set up the canal fund. Although the money was still not enough, Clinton still allowed the construction of the Erie Canal to be carried out as planned. After the construction of the canal began, it was questioned by many people. Some questioned Clinton's political enemies, especially the Tammany (formerly a charitable organization, but later got involved in politics and opposed Clinton's Federalist Party) and the Bucktails (an organization specifically opposing the construction of the canal). They used the canal to throw dirty water on Clinton, claiming that building the canal was a waste of money and called the canal "Clinton's big ditch." Some of the doubts are more reasonable and well-founded. For example, some people compared the built Erie Canal with the Potomac Canal built in the 18th century to question the significance and role of the Erie Canal.
Podomac Canal is a general term for a series of canals in Virginia and Maryland . The most important of which is the Chesapeake-Ohio Canal, but it is a typical project that failed to plan. Due to technical and financial constraints, it was originally going to be built from Washington to Pittsburgh to connect the Atlantic Ocean to Ohio River , but in fact it was only built to Cumberland, a small town in northwest Maryland, which ended because it was unable to cross the Allegheny Plateau (part of the Appalachian Mountains). Apart from Washington, which could be navigated, there are no more important cities along it, only some coal towns. Although it replaced the unfavorable navigational upstream of the Potomac River and accelerated the speed of coal from the Allegheny Plateau to the Atlantic Ocean, overall, the project is undoubtedly a loss.
Chesapeake-Ohio Canal diagram
Clinton sneered at the first question, but Clinton was not moved by the second question. The route of the Erie Canal was planned by him personally. The Mohuk Valley and Seneca Lake along the route are all natural waterways that can be borrowed in the Appalachian Mountains, so he was full of confidence in the successful construction of the entire Erie Canal. However, the initial construction was as difficult as the opposition had predicted. Two years have passed, and the planned canal is more than 800 kilometers long, and only the 24-kilometer section from Lake Oneda to Utica has been completed and opened for navigation. Following this progress, it will take 30 years for the Erie Canal to be completed, and people's enthusiasm and confidence continue to decline. Erie Canal is likely to follow the footsteps of the Chesapeake-Ohio Canal and become an unfinished project.
Clinton carefully analyzed the reasons for the slow construction progress. He found that there were two biggest obstacles: the first is that we had to pass through many primeval forests along the way. The roots of the tree that have been tangled in the soil for thousands of years are very difficult to dig. The second is that the labor force is severely insufficient and the front line of the project is in urgent need of manpower. Regarding the first question, Clinton and engineers discussed it and invented a new type of root digging machine. This kind of root digger consists of three wheels and one axis. The wheels on both sides are slightly larger than the wheels in the middle, and the shaft is covered with hinges and iron hooks. In the primeval forest where the river passes, when the trees are cut down, workers let the cattle or horse drag the root digger forward. This process will produce a lot of force, and the device on the shaft can remove the remaining roots of the tree. This invention was later used in many projects and was called the Yili Canal Excavator.
Erie Canal Excavator (Picture from Koeppel, 2009)
For the lack of labor, a new batch of immigrants from Europe helped Clinton a lot. Among the workers who built the canal, immigrants from Ireland served as the main force. These Irish people followed their predecessors and came to the United States to make a living in the late 1810s from the Ulster region of northern Ireland. With the help of this new force, the construction speed of the Yili Canal has been greatly improved. These workers made great sacrifices for the construction of the canal, such as in the swamped areas near Lake Cayuga (west of Syracuse and north of Ithaca), hundreds of workers died of infectious diseases while building the canal because of the numerous mosquitoes.
The channel to change the pattern
1825, the Yili Canal was opened. As Clinton thought, its integration caused a huge response in the United States, and Americans also officially felt the arrival of the industrial age. The tolls of the canal have brought continued considerable fiscal revenue to New York State, and it has also brought a lot of changes to New York State and the United States as a whole. First of all, the most obvious change is transportation. The opening of the Erie Canal allows Atlantic Ocean ships to directly enter Lake Erie and then head to the upstream Lake Huron , Lake Michigan and Lake Superior . Due to the success of the Erie Canal, canals have begun to be built in Pennsylvania, Ohio, , Illinois, and other places, and a denser canal network has been built in northern New York. These canals are connected to the Great Lakes and navigable natural rivers, allowing ships to directly enter the Mississippi River basin from the east coast, thus connecting the entire eastern United States waterways into a network.
Schematic diagram of the Erie Canal connecting the Atlantic, Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins
Schematic diagram of the main canals in the 1850s (red line, picture source: Wiki Public)
In terms of geographic pattern, the Erie Canal has led to two very significant and important changes: the first is the decline in the status of some old port cities such as New Orleans , and the second is the improvement of the status of ports and towns in northern New York and along the Great Lakes (such as Albany, Rochester, Erie, Detroit, etc.). New Orleans, the largest port in North America, once guarded the only water transport channel on the Central Plains of the United States, forming a monopoly in transportation. After the opening of the Erie Canal, this monopoly no longer existed, and the last pearl in the south became dim, exacerbating the relative economic and political backwardness of the United States in the United States.
The Great Lakes were greatly developed along the coast, and the abundant resources such as coal, iron, and copper were utilized and developed, so the Great Lakes became the base camp of the American industrialization process. In the 1820s and 1960s, industrial cities such as Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, and Milwaukee emerged one after another. Mines and iron smelting furnaces rose on the central lowland plain behind the Appalachian Mountains. Chicago, which has an important geographical location, has jumped from an unknown small village to a prosperous big city. In order to compete for the good port of Toledo on Lake Erie, Ohio and Michigan fought a border war in 1835 (known as the Toledo War). After this battle, Ohio received the Port of Toledo, and as compensation, the federal government assigned the Upper Peninsula, which originally belonged to Wisconsin, to Michigan. Ohio, which won the Port of Toledo, became the state that profited the most from the Great Lakes waterway. Michigan, which acquired the Upper Peninsula, later discovered a large pure copper mine there, and also benefited greatly.
The Erie Canal in the mid-19th century (Author: 19th-century English-American painter George Harvey, Source: University of Rochester)
The drawing depicting the steelmaking industrial area of the Monnon Garhera Valley in 1857 (Author: Edmund N. Tarbell, an American painter in the mid-19th century)
The city that benefited the most from the Erie Canal was New York.Before the Erie Canal was opened, New York, Boston , Philadelphia , Baltimore and even Norfolk on the east coast had the possibility of becoming an economic and trade center. However, after the Erie Canal was opened, New York became a shortcut to the Central Plains, and its status was comparable to that of New Orleans, which was an advantage that several other cities did not have. As a result, many ships heading to those cities changed directions and concentrated towards New York, and merchants also moved their base camps to move closer to New York, where transportation and logistics are the smoothest. From then on, New York became the commercial center of the United States and later developed into a global financial center and a world-class city, with its status irreplaceable. The other cities completely lost their strength to compete with New York after the Erie Canal was built. Philadelphia and Boston can still become cultural centers and regional centers because of their strong historical and cultural heritage. Baltimore and Norfolk, which are based on ports and freight, were hit the same as New Orleans and have since withdrawn from the ranks of first-tier cities. As for the Chesapeake-Ohio Canal, after the Erie Canal was built, there was no hope of development and it was completely abandoned.
In addition to the changes in urban structure and the rise of industry, the Erie Canal has a more profound impact on the US economy. For example, the Erie Canal gradually transformed the US economy into a consumer-led economy, laying the tone for the later American economic landscape. Before the Erie Canal was built, people living in the Midwest and Great Plains basically lived a self-sufficient life. Except for some of the grain they produce, shipped to New Orleans for sale, the rest are produced and sold by themselves. Most of their furniture, daily necessities and clothing are also made by themselves. The construction of the Yili Canal has made transportation from the East Coast to the Midwest faster and the cost has dropped to one tenth. Therefore, many goods that were previously only available on the East Coast can be transported to the once desolate Midwest, including fresh oysters produced in the Atlantic Ocean, which was unimaginable before. Agricultural and sideline products produced by residents in the central and western regions can also be sent to developed areas on a large scale on the east coast. As a result, there are more and more arable land on the Great Plains, and more and more commodity exchanges are being exchanged on the East Coast and the Central and West. People in the Midwest sell their grains to New York and buy farm tools, furniture, clothing and other goods from New York. They no longer self-sufficient and produce and sell. As a result, the US economy gradually shifted to a consumer-led economy.
Culturally, the opening of the Yili Canal gave the Second Great Awakening Movement a good way to spread. The Second Great Awakening Movement was a cultural movement in the early 19th century that revitalized American religious enthusiasm. Western New York State is one of its core areas. The most important reason for this was the opening of the Erie Canal. In the small towns that emerged on both sides of the canal, various sects sent people to spread the gospel where these churches were not yet popular, and some emerging sects also took root in this emerging land, including the later rapid development of Mormonism. In addition to the spread of religion along the Erie Canal, many new thoughts also surged along the canal, such as the early feminist movement, abolitionism and utopianism, all of which found their initial supporters in emerging towns in that area. Therefore, the construction of the Erie Canal has played a driving role in the change of the American cultural landscape.
Schematic diagram of the second great awakening movement
North-south opposition catalyst
Another major change brought to the United States by the Erie Canal is not so positive: it intensified the pattern of North-south opposition in the United States. In addition to the relative decline of New Orleans and the strong rise of the Great Lakes, the connection of the Erie Canal seriously intensified the social contradictions in the border areas of the north and south. Before the canal was built, the Southerners set up plantations along the Mississippi River northward, building plantations in southern Illinois and Indiana, while also bringing slavery to these areas.
After the completion of the Erie Canal, the Midwest region became the core area of industrial development. Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and other states entered the era of large factories one after another. Machines and chimneys gradually replaced agricultural estates and became the local economic pillars.Since the newly built factories require workers, the factory owners fell in love with the slaves working in the manor. They suggested that these states abolition the slaves, liberate the blacks, make them free laborers, and go to the factory to work. Their ideas were supported by the northern states. The local slave owners felt threatened, they were firmly opposed to the abolition, and they also received support from the southern states. Therefore, the two factions, representing the views on slavery in the north and the south, met in a narrow road in the southern part of these states, forming a tense confrontational situation, and social contradictions rapidly intensified. Since it involved the core interests of both parties, this contradiction was irreconcilable at the time.
The same situation also occurs in the rapidly industrialized Ohio River basin, including Kentucky and western Virginia, as well as Missouri on the outer periphery of the Midwest. Missouri is an slave state , which joined the United States Federation in 1820. Before it joined the Federation, there were 11 states in the north and south of the United States, so there was still fierce debate between the two sides over whether this state would become a free state or a slave state. Later, after compromise, Missouri state joined the federal government as a slave state. In order to balance the number of states controlled by both parties, the northern free state Massachusetts divided into two parts, and its Maine part was separately established as the free Maine . However, after the Erie Canal was built, Missouri developed a large-scale industry rapidly over more than 20 years, resulting in a significant decline in the proportion of people supporting slavery in this state.
The Ohio Valley Industrial Zone in the mid-19th century (author: William Palin)
In the 1850s, the Kansas Territory, close to Missouri, also clashed due to the dispute over slavery and abolition, and later signed the Kansas Nebraska Act in 1854. This bill resolves conflicts on the surface, but in fact, it barely conceals the conflicts between the north and the south, and delays the outbreak of large-scale conflicts. Liberating black slaves was just a moral slogan. What really led to the Civil War was the economic and labor dispute between plantations and large factories. The fuse that allowed this contradiction to spread throughout the United States was the construction of the Erie Canal.
On the eve of the Civil War, Kentucky and Missouri were originally slave-keeping, but several states with better industrialization had announced that they remained neutral. More than 20 counties in western Virginia near the Ohio Valley Industrial Zone announced that they had left Virginia, which was standing on the south side, and remained neutral in oneself, eventually evolved into the current West Virginia . The choice of these states greatly weakened the strength of the Confederacy and further doomed the fate of the failure of the Civil War in the south.
Civil War situation chart, with orange-red being the northern states, blue being the southern states, and pink being the slave states that did not join the Confederate, including Missouri, Kentucky and Western Virginia (later West Virginia)
Although the Erie Canal exacerbated the north-south confrontation in the United States, in general, the benefits of building it far outweigh the disadvantages. From the day it was built, the vast area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, especially the Midwest surrounding the Great Lakes, was no longer the frontier of the United States, but like the East Coast, it became the core of the United States. The economic and social changes it triggered also put the United States in its first step in developing into a strong country. The central and western regions can be rapidly industrialized, forming industrial zones, mining areas and urban belts of the Great Lakes, which are inseparable from the Yili Canal. Therefore, many people regard the opening of the Yili Canal as the official beginning of the first industrial revolution in the United States.
Although Clinton stepped down from his position as governor of New York before the completion of the canal, and was forced to leave the Erie Canal Commission two years later due to the attack of his political enemies, his strong advocate of the construction of the Erie Canal to the entire United States is obvious to all, and he is regarded as the greatest governor in New York's history. There are many small towns and rivers in the Midwest named after him, and his alma mater, Columbia University, also established a scholarship for American historical studies under his name.
In the 1860s, the Erie Canal was expanded, with almost doubled its width and depth, allowing larger ships to pass through. Although the status of the Erie Canal has declined after the maturity of the railway and highway network, it has always played its role. In 1918, the canal was expanded again and was incorporated into part of the New York Canal System. After the expansion, the canal depth reaches 4 meters and the width reaches 37 meters, allowing larger ships to pass through. The renovated canal is still accessible today. Although its transportation value is no longer high, it has become a water recreational place in upstate New York, with sightseeing boats and speedboats coming and going on the river. At the same time, it is also a source of irrigation water for some areas in northern and western New York.
There are many yachts driving on the Yili Canal today
