# The old Erie Canal of NY State.



## Pappy (Nov 1, 2017)

This was taken in Utica, NY. The canal had to pass under many low bridges. Hence, this song was popular back then.

[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]*I've got a mule, her name is Sal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
We've hauled some barges in our day
Filled with lumber, coal, and hay
And we know every inch of the way
From Albany to Buffalo*[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]_Chorus:_[/FONT][FONT=&quot]*
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge cause we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal*[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]*Get up there Sal, we've passed that lock,
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
And we'll make Rome before six o'clock
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal*[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]*One more trip and back we'll go
Through the rain and sleet and snow
And we know every inch of the way
From Albany to Buffalo*[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]*Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal

*[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot] [/FONT][/FONT]


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## Falcon (Nov 1, 2017)

Thanks for that Pappy.   I've passed it many times  during my life.


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## Marie5656 (Nov 1, 2017)

*I live on the canal, and have taken several of the canal boat tours in my area.  They give an interesting history of the canal.  *


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 1, 2017)

Pappy, great topic for a thread!!!

This is a photo of the Erie canal in downtown Syracuse NY, imagine how exciting it must have been for a 12 year old Hoggee leading a team of mules to see the big city skyline for the first time!







The young boys that led the mule teams along the Erie Canal towpath were considered the lowest of the low for the dirty menial job that they performed.

This is a mean little chant that children would sometimes shout as they passed by.

_Hoggee on the towpath,
Five cents a day.
Picking up horseballs,
To eat along the way!

_This statue in Syracuse NY is a tribute to the young Hoggees and the mules that toiled along the Erie Canal.


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## Pappy (Nov 1, 2017)




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## Meanderer (Nov 3, 2017)

Here is a favorite song of mine, by Jesse Thompson

The EarEyeEee Canal Was Rising


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 3, 2017)

_Haste, then, my brother, no time for delay,
But throw out the lifeline and save them today.

_The Rescue Mission floating church Good News in the turning basin behind the Syracuse NY City Hall.  The Good News was originally a circus boat named Kitty that was owned by the Sawtelle Brothers Circus.  The Good News burned to the waterline in 1894, three mission workers were asleep on board.  All three jumped into the canal for safety as the fire swept the barge, two of the men drowned.


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## Pappy (Nov 3, 2017)

Lockport, NY. The old and the new locks.


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## hearlady (Nov 3, 2017)

Cool.


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## Pappy (Nov 4, 2017)

A little history of the Erie Canal.


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## Meanderer (Nov 4, 2017)

Calvin's Canal.....


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 4, 2017)

Pappy said:


> A little history of the Erie Canal.
> 
> View attachment 44205


The amazing thing to me is that it took only about eight years to build and only about nine years to completely pay for with revenue generated by the canal.  Today's politicians should be required to study the Erie Canal!!!

These are some of the many souvenir dishes that were made in England and sold in America at the time the canal was completed.


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## Meanderer (Nov 4, 2017)

This is a time lapse video of 7 days condensed to 8 minutes on a 41' boat the "Jubilee" as it voyages from Croton-Hudson NY to Wellesley Island in the St. Lawrence River. The route goes through the Erie Canal and Lake Ontario.


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## NancyNGA (Nov 4, 2017)

What a great video!


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## Meanderer (Nov 4, 2017)

On June7, 2017, when President Donald Trump needed an example of big-thinking ingenuity, he turned to a historic landmark in his home state: the Erie Canal. 

To illustrate his point, the Republican president mentioned former New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton, who spearheaded construction of the historic canal more than 200 years ago.  *On October 26, 1825, Governor DeWitt Clinton, was on the first boat to travel through the Canal, and deposited a Keg of water from Lake Erie into the New York Harbour.*


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## Marie5656 (Nov 4, 2017)

*The attached link has several pictures and background information about Lock 62 of the canal.  It is in Pittsford, NY, which is a suburb of Rochester.

*http://www.eriecanal.org/Lock62.html


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 4, 2017)

This is the cask that Dewitt Clinton used for the marriage of the waters or wedding of the waters ceremony to pour water from Lake Erie into the water of the Atlantic Ocean.


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## DaveA (Nov 4, 2017)

Aunt Bea said:


> This is the cask that Dewitt Clinton used for the marriage of the waters or wedding of the waters ceremony to pour water from Lake Erie into the water of the Atlantic Ocean.



I don't know, Aunt Bea?  Lake Erie to the Atlantic Ocean??   Sounds like *"fake news"* to me???


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 4, 2017)

DaveA said:


> I don't know, Aunt Bea?  Lake Erie to the Atlantic Ocean??   Sounds like *"fake news"* to me???



Dave, You need to get out more, I hear we've even landed men on the moon!!!


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## Pappy (Nov 4, 2017)

I have that book...The Wedding of the Waters... somewhere in my book pile. Have to see if I can find it.


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## DaveA (Nov 4, 2017)

Back in the late 80's, when we were traveling with the sprint car, our club, the United Racing Club used to show up at Fonda, NY on Memorial day week-end each year as part of the schedule.  Fonda Speedway (formerly Montgomery County Fairgrounds) backs up against the Erie Canal and race cars have occasionally flown off the back stretch into the canal, fortunately without fatalities. Never happened to us or any of our club but folks that ran there on a weekly basis used to joke about it.


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## Big Horn (Nov 4, 2017)

Governor Clinton needn't have bothered.  The water would have gotten there on it's own.


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## Pappy (Nov 5, 2017)

DaveA said:


> Back in the late 80's, when we were traveling with the sprint car, our club, the United Racing Club used to show up at Fonda, NY on Memorial day week-end each year as part of the schedule.  Fonda Speedway (formerly Montgomery County Fairgrounds) backs up against the Erie Canal and race cars have occasionally flown off the back stretch into the canal, fortunately without fatalities. Never happened to us or any of our club but folks that ran there on a weekly basis used to joke about it.



Been to Fonda raceway many times in my younger years. A lot of Canal history there.


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## Meanderer (Nov 5, 2017)

Erie Canal - Bruce Springsteen (Lyrics)


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## Pappy (Nov 5, 2017)

This is lock 20 in Marcy, NY. It was a 26 foot rise and a bit scary the first time we used it on our way to Oneida Lake. We owned a 34 foot Trojan houseboat named Capricorn.


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## Meanderer (Nov 5, 2017)

Not to be confused with the *Ear Canal*...............


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## Meanderer (Nov 5, 2017)

There seems to be a contradiction on where the water was deposited.  The New York Harbour?

"Congratulations, we made it! On November 4, 1825, *Governor DeWitt Clinton poured a keg of Lake Erie water into New York Harbor* commemorating the completion of the Erie Canal. The canal will now make it possible for both New England and immigrant farmers to settle and develop the rich farmlands of the Mid-western states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois".


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## Pappy (Nov 5, 2017)




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## Pappy (Nov 5, 2017)




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## Aunt Bea (Nov 5, 2017)

One of the last challenges to finishing the Erie Canal was the deep rock cut, seven miles long and forty feet deep carved from solid rock in the days before dynamite and cranes to lift the debris out of the trench.

http://www.lowbridgeproductions.com/erie-canal-images-deep-cut.html


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## Meanderer (Nov 5, 2017)

The Economic History of the Erie Canal


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 5, 2017)

A forgotten part of the Erie Canal system in my area are the old reservoirs and feeder canals that were built to help regulate the water level of the canal.

The Deruyter Reservoir is one beautiful example.

http://www.deruyterlake.com/deruyterlake.htm


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 8, 2017)

On the canal in Seneca Falls NY.


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## Pappy (Nov 8, 2017)

15 cents for this? Are they nuts. People can’t afford these high prices.......


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## Meanderer (Nov 8, 2017)

A Whale of an update:

• The burning of a traveling, embalmed whale.


"On June 5, 1888, a large whale was caught off Cape Cod. About a 20-foot section of the whale was cut off, embalmed and taken on tour".


"On Nov. 10 and 11, 1891, it was on display at Gleason’s Knitting Mill in Seneca Falls and then went to Waterloo, where it was displayed at the Eagle Tavern".


"A group of local rowdies, according to Gable, broke into the tavern barn at night and took the embalmed whale out on its wagon into the street and set it afire. They were never caught, Gable notes".


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## jujube (Nov 8, 2017)

We really enjoyed the sightseeing boat ride we did on the Erie Canal a few years ago.  The story of the "upside-down bridge" was very interesting; apparently the railroad built the bridge structure right down almost to the water level to make it impossible or at least very difficult to carry goods by barge.  They were made to dismantle part of the structure to allow for boat passage.

The low-light of the trip was when a passenger sighted a body floating in the water as we returned to the dock.  It was a man who had been missing for a couple of days.


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## Meanderer (Nov 8, 2017)

*Lockport Railroad Bridge*

*("Upside-Down Bridge")*


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## Meanderer (Nov 8, 2017)

Christmas and the Erie Canal in Schenectady





"Youngsters ice-skate on the frozen Erie Canal in this photograph taken circa 1910. The skating area, just south of State Street on what is now Erie Boulevard, was a popular place for children and families to have fun during the holidays. On the weekends before Christmas, lanterns and music were brought in to make skating an even jollier affair. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection". 





"Local men bundle up to watch horses race on the frozen bed of the Erie Canal in this undated photograph. Horse racing and ice skating were popular wintertime pursuits along the canal; Lew McCue especially associated these activities with Christmastime in the area. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection".


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 8, 2017)

The day the bottom fell out of the Erie Canal in Syracuse NY.  

When the canal was built a culvert was placed under the canal to carry the water of Onondaga creek, in 1907 that culvert collapsed and created a large hole in the bottom of the canal.


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## Meanderer (Nov 9, 2017)

Afloat on the Erie Canal: Sonar Gear, Ferris Wheel Parts and Beer Tanks
MAY 28, 2017

"Unlike the frontier farm goods that once headed east to market, these new shipments often have a distinctly modern feel. They have included electrical transformers and turbines, Navy sonar equipment, and huge pedestals to support the New York Wheel, a towering Ferris wheel being built on Staten Island".

"And giant beer cans".

"Over the past 10 days, 12 enormous beer tanks have been slowly floating on the canal to Rochester, where the Genesee Beer Company plans to use them to brew a whopping eight million bottles of beer at a time. They are expected to arrive early this week".

"Like many of the other items seen lately along the canal, the tanks are simply too big for the roads or rails, the company says. So, for the past week, the tanks have been bobbing their way about 225 miles on four barges: a virtual beer flotilla, and an opportunity for canal — and beer — aficionados to see Clinton’s ditch in action".


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## Pappy (Nov 9, 2017)

A canal weighing station in Syracuse, NY.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 9, 2017)

Pappy said:


> A canal weighing station in Syracuse, NY.
> 
> View attachment 44460



Wonderful picture!!!

Notice the birdhouses.  The Erie Canal was a serious breeding ground for mosquitoes and it became common practice to erect birdhouses that attracted purple martins to help keep the mosquito population under control.  The wedding cake birdhouse in the picture was rebuilt by a local craftsman and still sits in approximately the same spot at what is now the Erie Canal Museum.


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## Meanderer (Nov 12, 2017)




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## Pappy (Nov 12, 2017)

You know what they say about one bad apple in the barrel.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Nov 12, 2017)

I live about 5 miles from the Musconetcong River in New Jersey. There is an old canal house still standing along side the canal. Quite a few years ago my sister in law rented  part of it for an antique store.After she left my sons shop teacher bought the building and now rents out part of it to my son for his cabinetry shop. The building in the photo is exactly what it looks like today. The building was used to drop off supplies for the whole area back then. The right side is where the canal went through. Not much left of it today. My son would love to buy the whole building and restore it but it would cost a small fortune. Inside is still big pieces of machinery on the ceiling that they used somehow for grain. The second photo shows the canal from years ago.


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## Pappy (Nov 13, 2017)

The old Chenango Canal, a feeder canal off the Erie canal. This canal ran right down Main St. In my hometown of Norwich, NY.


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## Meanderer (Nov 15, 2017)

Another Feeder....


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## NancyNGA (Feb 18, 2018)

Hope it's OK to change topics just a little... 

 There was a canal system in Ohio also.  The Ohio Erie Canal ran  through my hometown, but you couldn't see most of it by the time I came along.  Some of it was underground by then, and some of it went between factory buildings.  Lock #3.






Northeast Canal System


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## Pappy (Feb 18, 2018)

Of course it is Nancy. Canals were being built all over the east.


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## Meanderer (Feb 18, 2018)

American Folk Music (Ohio): The Old Skipper


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## Pappy (Feb 18, 2018)




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## Rainee (Feb 18, 2018)

Wow all this so interesting and I`d love to live where they had a canal system .. not only UK that has them and I had no idea they were in USA as well .. thanks for sharing these wonderful old photos ..


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