Erie Canal in Lockport, NY. Image: W.H. Bartlett, 1839, wikimedia commons.
The waters announced their engagement in 1817 but would not be wedded until 1825. Upon the bicentennial of the Erie Canal, concert tours by water will ring celebratory along the route credited with shaping the economic and political destiny of the United States. Historians say the Erie Canal may have been inspired by Robert Fulton, of steamboat fame, who admired the Canal des Deux Mers in France. Once the engagement’s union was fulfilled, in the “wedding of the waters,” the Erie Canal was an instant success. Shipping goods from Buffalo to New York City before, required two weeks; via the canal, three days. Similarly, the cost of transporting goods by land, formerly $100 per ton, was now reduced to $10 per ton. What are the waterways of the future? Such considerations will be explored at the World Canals Conference, convening this year in Syracuse, New York, on the Erie Canal.
More:
New York State Museum http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibitions/enterprising-waters-erie-canal
Erie Canal Museum: http://eriecanalmuseum.org
Bike the canal route: https://www.ptny.org/cycle-the-erie-canal/trail-map
See the art: https://www.albanyinstitute.org/spotlight-erie-canal.html
Hear the music: http://www.albanysymphony.com/journeybegins/
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
