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VOICE ONE:
I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember withEXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. In the early eighteen hundreds,traveling in the United States was dangerous. Business and tradingwere limited. Then came the waterway called the Erie Canal. Ithelped build America.
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VOICE ONE:
July Fourth, eighteen seventeen was a special day in Rome, NewYork. People there celebrated the anniversary of America’sindependence from Britain. They also marked the groundbreaking forthe building of the Erie Canal. When it was completed eight yearslater, the canal became America’s first national waterway.
The Erie Canal crossed the state of New York from the city ofBuffalo on Lake Erie to Albany and Troy on the Hudson River. TheHudson River flowed into the Atlantic Ocean at New York City. So thecanal joined the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The canal madeNew York City a major port.
VOICE TWO:
The difficulty of traveling through the Appalachian Mountains hadkept many people from going west. The mountains also preventedpeople in the west from sending their wood and farm products east.But the canal overcame the natural barrier of those mountains. Ithelped open the American West. The Erie Canal made the United Statesa richer and stronger young nation.
VOICE ONE:
Politicians, businessmen, farmers and traders had talked aboutcreating a canal connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Oceanfor one hundred years. A lawyer and politician named De Witt Clintonfinally succeeded in getting the canal built. As early aseighteen-oh-nine, Clinton saw the need for the canal. Then he had todefend his idea against people who laughed at him. Some criticscalled the canal “Clinton’s Folly” — a stupid project. In eighteentwelve, the federal government rejected a proposal to provide moneyfor the canal.
But five years later, the New York State legislature providedmore than seven million dollars for the project. The lawmakers namedClinton to head a committee to supervise the development of thecanal. De Witt Clinton was elected governor of New York that sameyear.
VOICE TWO:
The Erie Canal was five hundred eighty-four kilometers long, morethan eight meters wide at the bottom and one and one-half metersdeep. It could not have been completed without the hard anddangerous labor of many workers. Historians say about one-third ofthe workers had recently moved to the United States from Ireland.They received about fifty cents a day for building the Erie Canal.
The men used explosives to break the rocky earth. Many workerswere injured. Many were infected with the disease malaria.Twenty-six workers died of smallpox. Some were buried in unmarkedgraves along the canal.
VOICE ONE:
Big guns were fired in October,eighteen twenty-five in Buffalo, New York. The cannons were part ofa celebration to observe the completion of the Erie Canal. GovernorDe Witt Clinton and his wife left Buffalo on a barge called theSeneca Chief. The boat moved at the rate of less than fivekilometers per hour. It reached the Hudson River nine days later. Tomark the arrival, Governor Clinton dropped some water from Lake Erieinto the Hudson River.
VOICE TWO: Within ten years, the Erie Canal had repaid the costof building it. Transportation of products by canal was less costlythan other methods.The waterway carried barges. Most of these boatshad flat bottoms for carrying goods. The barges measured up totwenty-four meters long and about four and one-half meters wide.Mules and horses on land pulled the barges through the canal usingropes. Eighty-three devices called locks raised the barges on thecanal by more than one hundred seventy meters from the Hudson Riverto Lake Erie.
Men and animals worked hard to pull the barges. A mule named Salbecame famous in a folksong called “The Erie Canal.” Ken Darby andthe Whiskeyhill Chorus sing about life on the canal.
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VOICE ONE:
Over time, the canal grew. Many improvements were made betweeneighteen thirty-five and eighteen sixty-two. But a few years later,the canal began to lose importance. Trains were becoming an easierand more profitable way to transport goods.
As the Erie Canal was losing business, some of its levees beganto break. Levees normally hold back the water, preventing floods.The breaks damaged the towpaths next to the canal and stoppedtravel.
VOICE TWO:
Age or heavy rains often caused the levees to break. But thebreaks were not always an accident. Towns like Forestport, New Yorkhad been suffering from the closing of businesses. Then, in the lastyears of the eighteen hundreds, several area levees broke undersuspicious conditions.
Breaks in the levees should have been bad news for Forestport.Difficult repairs were needed. But few people in the town seemed sadabout the breaks. Instead, many were pleased. Almost two thousandmen were brought in to repair the damage. That was more than thenormal population of Forestport. People crowded into places to eat,drink and play games of chance. The town had money again. Lifebecame as profitable and wild as it had been during the best days oftrade on the canal.
VOICE ONE:
The administration of New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt grewsuspicious. Officials investigated. State officials charged severalmen from Forestport with plotting to damage canal property.
Newspaper reporter Michael Doyle recently wrote a book called”The Forestport Breaks.” He wrote the book after researching hisancestors who had lived in Forestport. Mister Doyle said he learnedthat his great-grandfather took part in the wrongdoing.
At the beginning of the book, a farmer sees water flooding over alevee in Forestport. He warns local officials. His warning preventsmore severe damage. But some of the townspeople do not praise thefarmer for his action. Instead, Mister Doyle writes that they wantto kill him.
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VOICE TWO:
By nineteen-oh-three, some businesses were pressuring New York tobuild a whole system of canals. These people did not want therailroads to completely control the transport of goods. So the stateformed the New York State Barge Canal System in nineteen eighteen.The Erie Canal became the largest part, linked to three shortercanals.
The canal system stayed busy until nineteen fifty-nine. At thattime, the United States and Canada opened the Saint Lawrence Seaway.This waterway permitted ocean ships to sail up the Saint LawrenceRiver and through the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal lost a lot of itsbusiness.
VOICE ONE:
But the Erie Canal and the other parts of the New York canalsystem got help. In nineteen ninety-one, people who cared about thehistoric canal held a big public event. The group is called Erie’sRestoration Interests Everyone. It made the same trip that hadcelebrated completion of the Erie Canal in eighteen twenty-five.
As Governor and Missus Clinton had done, the group traveled fromBuffalo, New York to the Hudson River. A man taking the part of DeWitt Clinton dropped water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor.
A few days later, citizens voted to take measures to re-developthe canal system. Today, barges still use the system to transportheavy goods. One estimate says the canal system carries more thanfour hundred thousand tons of goods each year. More than one hundredfifty thousand pleasure boats also use the system each year.
VOICE TWO:
Today, an area called the Canalway National Heritage Corridorcontains parts of the Erie Canal of the eighteen hundreds. You canwalk, run or ride a bicycle in this area. You can take pictures orstudy plants, birds and other wildlife. You can ride on the canal ina small boat called a canoe.
Or, you can take a historic Erie Canal boat trip. Thousands ofpeople do this every year. The boat moves slowly along the water.You can listen to guides tell about the animals and the men whopulled the barges. And, musicians play songs of the days when theErie Canal was helping a young nation grow.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by MarioRitter. I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS inVOA Special English.