Technology archaeologists and industrial historians date the American Canal Age from 1790 to 1855 based on momentum and new construction activity, since many of the older canals, although limited by locks that restricted boat sizes below the most economic capacities, nonetheless continued in service well into the twentieth century.
Background From the first days of the expansion of the
British colonies from the coast of North America into the heartland of the continent, a recurring problem was that of transportation between the coastal ports and the interior. This was not unique to the Americas, and the problem still exists in those parts of the world where
muscle power provides a primary means of transportation within a region. An equally ancient solution was implemented in many cultures — things in the water weighed far less and took less effort to move since friction became negligible. Close to the seacoast, rivers often provided adequate waterways, but the
Appalachian Mountains, inland, running over long as a
barrier range with just five
passes where
mule trains or
wagon roads could be routed, presented a great challenge. Passengers and freight had to travel overland, a journey made more difficult by the rough condition of the roads. In 1800, it typically took 2.5 weeks to travel overland from New York to
Cleveland,
Ohio [] and 4 weeks to
Detroit []. The principal exportable product of the
Ohio Valley was grain, which was a high-volume, low-priced commodity, bolstered by supplies from the coast. Frequently it was not worth the cost of transporting it to far-away population centers. This was a factor leading to farmers in the west turning their grains into
whiskey for easier transport and higher sales, and later the
Whiskey Rebellion. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it became clear to coastal residents that the city or state that succeeded in developing a cheap, reliable route to the West would enjoy economic success, and the port at the seaward end of such a route would see business increase greatly. In time, projects were devised in
Virginia,
Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and relatively deep into the coastal states.
Early history , running east and west, cuts a natural pathway between the
Catskill Mountains to the south and the
Adirondack Mountains to the north|alt=Relief map of New York state in
Rexford, New York, one of 32
navigable aqueducts on the Erie Canal|alt=Black-and-white photo of aqueduct over curve in canal The idea of a canal to tie the East Coast of the United States to the new western settlements was already in the air by 1724: New York provincial official
Cadwallader Colden made a passing reference (in a report on fur trading) to improving the natural waterways of western New York.
Gouverneur Morris and
Elkanah Watson were early proponents of a canal along the
Mohawk River. Their efforts led to the creation of the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Companies in 1792 (which took the first steps to improve navigation on the Mohawk and construct a canal between the Mohawk and Lake Ontario), but the company proved that private financing was insufficient.
George Washington led a partly enduring effort to turn the
Potomac River into a navigable link to the west, sinking substantial energy and capital into the
Patowmack Canal from 1785 until his death fourteen years later. By 1788 Washington's Potomac Company was successful in constructing five locks which took boats past the Potomac Great Falls. The
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal superseded the Potomac Canal in 1823.
Christopher Colles (who was familiar with the Bridgewater Canal) surveyed the Mohawk Valley, and made a presentation to the New York state legislature in 1784 proposing a canal from
Lake Ontario. The proposal drew attention and some action but was never implemented.
Jesse Hawley finally got the canal built. He had envisioned encouraging the growing of large quantities of grain on the Western New York plains (then largely unsettled) for sale on the
Eastern seaboard. However, he went
bankrupt trying to ship grain to the coast. While in
Canandaigua debtors' prison, Hawley began pressing for the construction of a canal along the
Mohawk River valley with support from
Joseph Ellicott (agent for the
Holland Land Company in
Batavia). Ellicott realized that a canal would add value to the land he was selling in the western part of the state. He later became the first canal commissioner. The first legislation supporting canals in
North America was passed in 1762 in the colonial-era
Province of Pennsylvania to improve navigation on the
Schuylkill River through
Philadelphia, the largest city in North America. It provided for the surveying of a lock canal along the Schuylkill tributary
Tulpehocken Creek; this would be built between 1782 and 1828 as the
Union Canal, part of the omnibus Pennsylvania legislative package, the
Main Line of Public Works, and was the only water route connecting the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers above the
Chesapeake Bay. Next up there were numerous schemes and bills placed before the Pennsylvania assembly in the 1790-1816 time frame to improve navigation on the Susquehanna, Schuylkill and Lehigh Rivers, the first being the
Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company in 1791. They consumed private capital and public monies, but were little successful. Concurrently, the predecessor of the
Erie Canal was begun in
New York State and in New England, Connecticut and Massachusetts were looking at a few waterways needing better navigability. The Lehigh Canal was developed when the last of these licenses, awarded in 1816, expired in early 1818 with virtually nothing to show for the funds spent. This expiration allowed the state to give rights-of-way to the
Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company in March 1818, founded by two disgruntled formerly enthusiastic backers of the
Schuylkill Canal which was chartered in 1812 but like the earlier
Lehigh River projects, languished lazily, only raising a small amount of new funds annually, and getting only a little amount of work done accordingly.
Josiah White and partner
Erskine Hazard needing fuel for their wire mill and nail factory at the falls of the Schuylkill fought this plodding method of incremental improvement for years. Like many North American canals of the 1820s-1840s, the canal operating companies partnered with or founded short feeder railroads to connect to their sources or markets. Two good examples of this were funded by private enterprise: • The
Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company used
vertically integrated mining raw materials, transporting them, manufacturing with them, and merchandising by building coal mines, the instrumental
Lehigh Canal, and feeding their own iron goods manufacturing industries and assuaging the American Republic's first energy crisis by increasing coal production from 1820 onwards using the nation's second constructed railway, the
Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Railroad. • The second coal road and canal system was inspired by LC&N's success. The
Delaware and Hudson Canal and
Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad. The LC&N operation was aimed at supplying the country's premier city,
Philadelphia with much needed fuel. The D&H companies were founded purposefully to supply the explosively growing city of New York's energy needs. Together, they and the
Schuylkill Canal-
Reading Railroad would supply and transport the majority of Anthracite needed by northern industries in the early North American
Industrial Revolution. Unlike Europe, America did not have canals for several hundred years before industrialization. In North America, everything was developed simultaneously. Early railroads in North America made many canals economically feasible, and canal's needs added to the demands by industries that pushed the early railroads into pressurized research and development and rapid steady improvements. By 1855, canals were no longer the civil engineering work of first resort, for it was nearly always better—cheaper to build a railroad above ground than it was to dig a watertight ditch 6–8 feet (2–3 m) deep and provide it with water and make annual repairs for ice and
freshet damages—even though the cost per ton mile on a canal was often cheaper in an operational sense, canals couldn't be built along hills and dales, nor backed into odd corners, as could a railroad siding.
Engineering requirements chutes in 1873 with
scales to determine tolls in 1873 in 1907 in 2008 The
Mohawk River, a tributary of the
Hudson River, rises near
Lake Ontario and runs in a
glacial meltwater channel just north of the
Catskill range of the
Appalachian Mountains, separating them from the geologically distinct
Adirondacks to the north. The Mohawk and Hudson valleys form the only cut across the Appalachians north of
Alabama, allowing an almost complete water route from
New York City in the south to
Lake Ontario and
Lake Erie in the west. Along its course and from these lakes, other
Great Lakes, and to a lesser degree, related rivers, a large part of the continent's interior and many settlements were well connected to the
Eastern seaboard. The problem was that the land rises about from the Hudson to Lake Erie. Locks at the time could handle up to , so even with the heftiest
cuttings and
viaducts, fifty locks would be required along the canal. Such a canal would be expensive to build even with modern technology; in 1800, the expense was barely imaginable. President
Thomas Jefferson called it "a little short of madness" and rejected it; however, Hawley interested New York Governor
DeWitt Clinton in the project. There was much opposition, and the project was ridiculed as "Clinton's folly" and "Clinton's ditch." In 1817, though, Clinton received approval from the legislature for $7 million for construction. The original canal was long, from
Albany on the Hudson to
Buffalo on Lake Erie. The channel was cut wide and deep, with removed soil piled on the downhill side to form a walkway known as a
towpath. Packet boats measuring up to in length and across made ingenious use of space in order to accommodate up to forty passengers at night and up to three times as many in the daytime. The best examples furnished with carpeted floors, stuffed chairs, and mahogany tables stocked with current newspapers and books served as sitting rooms during the days. At mealtimes crews transformed the cabin into dining rooms. Drawing a curtain across the width of the room divided the cabin into ladies' and gentlemen's sleeping quarters in the evening hours. Pull down tiered beds folded from the walls and additional cots could be hung from hooks in the ceiling. Some captains hired musicians and held dances. It was used to carry
anthracite gathered to the central
Lehigh Valley to the urban markets of the northeast, especially
Philadelphia,
Trenton, New Jersey, and
Wilmington, Delaware, but supported new growth industries in
Bristol, Pennsylvania,
Allentown and
Bethlehem. The privately funded canal was joined as part of the
Pennsylvania Canal System, a complex system of canals and tow paths—and eventually railroads. The canal was sold for recreation use in the 1960s. The Lehigh Navigation & Coal Company sits astride the history of the 1820-1880s
Industrial Revolution, and with much the same clout as a modern conglomerate such as General Motors, or General Electric or with the same sorts of innovations as are ascribed to IBM, Microsoft or the like. Leveraging of innovation and immense self-confidence, the Company founders
Lower Lehigh Canal With the discovery of large surface deposits of anthracite coal, the
Lehigh Coal Mine Company (LCMC) was formed in 1792 to secure the mineral rights to vast areas of wilderness west of the Lehigh River ranging beyond to the outcrops atop Sharpe Peak of
Pisgah Ridge near present-day
Summit Hill, Pennsylvania. The LCMC lacked a principle investor as a hands-on-manager and periodically hired teams to trek to the wilderness to build 'Arks' along the Lehigh near the turnpike operated from
Lausanne above Mauch Chunk to the Susquehanna River valley passed by
Beaver Meadows and the eventual Beaver Meadows mines, and then attempted to transport the coal down the
Lehigh River to the
Delaware River and on to the docks in
Philadelphia. The lack of steady effort and an intimately involved company officer in the operations returned sketchy results, most often the expeditions would loose arks on the rapids of the Lehigh and so the LCMC made little profits, and only sporadic efforts over two decades. Inspired by the energy shortfall during the blockade of the
War of 1812, the LCMC sent a large expedition out in 1813, which started down the river in spring of 1814 with five arks laden with coal. Only two of them made it to Philadelphia, and both were purchased by
Josiah White and partner
Erskine Hazard. The LCMC board in its disgust confirmed the unreliability of the fuel source when they let it be known they planned no further risky expeditions as too costly, giving White and Hazard the idea of purchasing the rights to operate the mining company. In the fall of 1814 they mounted an expedition to survey the Lehigh's problems and those of the coal mine and transportation needs for getting its output to the River reliably and regularly.
Initial construction The lower Lehigh Canal improvements were initially designed and engineered by LC&N founder
Josiah White By mid-1822, managing director Josiah White was consulting with
Canvass White, a veteran
designing engineer of
New York's
Erie Canal locks, and by late 1822 had shifted construction efforts from bolstering and improving the one-way system begun in 1818 with ambitious two-way dams and lock construction capable of taking both a steam tug and a coastal cargo ship all from the Delaware to the slack water pool at Mauch Chunk in present-day
Jim Thorpe. ==See also==