The Great American Canals (Volume 2, The Erie Canal)

by Archer Butler Hulbert

“‘If we must have war ... I am in favor of the canal and I vote for the bill.’

“With that vote the bill became a law.”[35]

Preliminary work was immediately begun in the early spring of 1817 at the strategic summit level at Rome by conducting “a careful re-examination of the line of the canal, and of the levels of the preceding year.” This reconsideration seemed to indicate that a longer summit level at Rome than the one selected should be made, and Utica was chosen as the eastern extremity of this level rather than Rome. This decision was enforced by the fact that Mohawk navigation above Utica was always more uncertain than at any point below it; if the canal for instance should terminate at the Mohawk because of lack of means, or other cause, it would be advantageous to have its terminus on the Mohawk at a point where navigation was as uniformly reliable as possible. The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company had often found it necessary to make a portage from Utica to Rome, such was the low stage of water in the Mohawk. The summit level chosen, therefore, ran from Utica to the salt-works at Salina (Syracuse). This was the eastern summit. The western was yet to be chosen between the Genesee and the Niagara tributaries in western New York.

Five lines of stakes were now driven into the ground from the eastern to the western boundaries of the state of New York—a circumstance which must be considered epoch-making in the history of America. For, look at it as you will, the beginning of the Erie Canal must be considered a greater marvel than the building of it. It would be difficult now to propose an engineering feat that is within the range of sanity that would provoke so much ridicule and debate as did the plan to build the Erie Canal through those hundreds of miles of dense forests and reeking swamps in 1816. A bridge across the Atlantic or a tunnel underneath it could scarcely provoke more sneers today. Yet the summer of 1817 saw the rows of stakes driven into the ground—over hill and vale, through densest forest and sickliest swamp, from east to west; the outer rows were sixty feet apart and indicated the space to be grubbed; between these were two other rows forty feet apart which indicated the exact dimensions of the canal; a single row of stakes in the middle marked the exact center of the canal. Those who laughed at the stakes grew sober when men came on over the route boring with four inch augers into the ground every few rods to a depth of twelve feet; by this means the nature of the soil was tested all along the route and estimates could be made of the cost of the digging; thereupon profiles could be drawn by the engineers. Each of the three great sections of the canal was subdivided into very small sections which were to be let to contractors; each working section was bounded, when possible, by a brook or ravine, in order that each contractor might have the advantage of independent drainage. The plan of the state’s furnishing the tools for the work of digging the canal was soon changed, the contractors being expected to furnish their own tools. An instance of the skill of the old Erie Canal engineers, in a day when “surveying” was as loose a word as the dictionary contained, is interesting: “While Benjamin Wright, Esquire, was re-examining and laying off sections from Rome, west along the canal line, it was deemed expedient, as a test to the accuracy of the work, that James Geddes, Esquire, should start, at a given point on the canal line at Rome, and carry a level along the road to the east end of Oneida Lake, marking on permanent objects the height of the surface of the water while the lake was tranquil, at various places from the east to the west end, along its southern shore; that he should then connect by a level, the Oneida with the Onondaga Lake; after which he was to carry a level from the last mentioned lake, at Salina, south about one and a fourth miles to the canal line, and from thence to work to the east, laying off sections along the canal line. This was accomplished, and nine miles at the west end of the summit level were laid out into sections. And the commissioners have the satisfaction to state, that when the level of Mr. Wright had been carried along the canal line, to the place where Mr. Geddes had terminated his line, the levels of these engineers, which embraced a circuit ... of nearly one hundred miles, differed from each other less than one and an half inches.”

The first contract for work on the Erie Canal was signed June 27, 1817. Work was not begun until a formal inaugural celebration at Rome, New York, July 4, 1817.

A Canal Lock at Rome, New York, Touching the Site of Fort Stanwix

The authorities of Rome arranged with the canal commissioners to unite the celebrations of the opening of the canal with the annual Fourth of July holiday. “At the appointed time and place, Judge Hathaway, President of the village, made a short address, adapted to the occasion, and then delivered the spade into the hands of the Commissioners. After a short but graphic speech by the Commissioner Young, he handed the spade to Judge Richardson, the first contractor, who then thrust it into the ground and made the first excavation for the construction of the canal. The example was immediately followed by his own laborers, and by the assembled citizens, all ambitious of the honor of participating in the labors of that memorable occasion. Thus amid the roar of artillery, and the acclamations of the people, was begun that great work which has spread civilization, wealth and refinement....”[36]

Thousands were ready to jump at the chance of securing contracts on the great work; money was scarce along the countryside and means to make it proportionately few; as was the case in the building of the Cumberland Road, a great contemporary work to the south, so the Erie Canal was an immediate boon to hundreds in that long strip of country through which the lines of stakes were driven. Most of the contractors were well-to-do New York farmers, and three-fourths of the army of laborers which now attacked the long task were native born; the foreign element which played so large a part in making the Cumberland Road did not figure in the building of the Erie Canal. Angry gangs of mutinous foreign laborers did not menace the first travelers on the Erie Canal. The commissioners had the good sense to mark out the work to be done in such a way that worthy men of little capital could secure contracts; accordingly the distances to be contracted for were divided up and men of small or no means at all were enabled to secure contracts as well as great contractors with armies of workmen in their employ. Money was frequently advanced to contractors in sums of from $200 to $2,000 according to the size of the contract. Good security was demanded. The commissioners, on the other hand, were warned to look out for rascally men who appear whenever any great work is to be undertaken. In building locks and embankments there was ample opportunity for deceit and dishonesty, which was an item to be reckoned with.