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America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

Posted October 08, 2018 10:04 AM by Hannes
Pathfinder Tags: erie canal history shipping

About a decade ago, commercial shipping on the New York State Canal System began a steady rebound following decades of decline. This year, commercial shipping on New York’s canals is poised to hit a 30-year high. There are a number of possible explanations for this, including the growth of stone shipping in upstate New York and the superior fuel efficiency of inland waterway shipping during a spike in oil and diesel fuel prices.

This commercial shipping rebound is a surprising development for America’s original superhighway and first American feat of civil engineering. At this time exactly two centuries ago, workers were toiling to dig the canal. On the heels of “canal mania” in Europe, the idea for a man-made waterway linking the Hudson River with the Great Lakes had been proposed as early as 1724, but most serious proposals were dismissed as impractical or even impossible. Because New York’s topography rises 600 feet from east to west and early 19th century locks could only provide lift of about 12 feet, building a canal with 50 locks would prove to be a monumental expense.

The young country also had no trained civil engineers. The four men who designed the canal and oversaw its construction included two judges with minimal surveying experience, a 27-year-old amateur engineer and a math teacher. Yet they designed a mechanical stump puller to quickly clear virgin forests, built massive aqueducts to carry the canal across valleys and rivers, and installed flights of locks to move boats over steep terrain.

A novel mechanical stump puller (above) could pull 40 stumps in a day. Image source: Elderhostel on the Erie Canal.

The series of locks at Waterford, at the canal’s eastern terminus, is believed to be steepest in the world, lifting boats 169 feet over a distance of less than two miles. The American Society of Civil Engineers has since named the “Waterford flight” a significant historic civil engineering landmark.

The image below shows Lock E2, the first of the Waterford flight, built in 1907. The lock lifts boats almost 34 feet.

The 363-mile Erie Canal was completed in 1825 at a cost of $7,143,000 (equal to $109 million in 2017). It proved so popular that New York’s construction debt was earned back within a year via tolls on freight. Its construction resulted in a number of novel inventions, including the stump puller mentioned above, a high-performance, inexpensive waterproof hydraulic cement developed by Canvass White for sealing locks and cracks, and an improved streamlined wheelbarrow for easily moving mud in swampy areas.

The canal immediately cut shipping costs by 95%. Commercial shipping peaked in 1855: 33,000 shipments traversed the canal that year. In 1918 New York improved the Erie Canal and merged the state’s four canals into the 525-mile New York State Barge Canal; since 1992 the Barge Canal has simply been referred to as the New York State Canal System.

The growth of railroads and automobiles as well as construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959 rapidly eroded the Canal System’s utility. For decades, the vast majority of the canal’s use has been purely recreational boating and tours. Commercial shipping bottomed out at 15 shipments in 2007.

The Erie Canal, which spurred new inventions and rapidly opened the American West to settlement, is a true engineering marvel. Engineering360 will be covering the canal’s surprising commercial shipping rebound in more detail in the coming months – stay tuned.

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#1

Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/08/2018 12:53 PM

The Erie Canal would be a dream cruise for me someday. Better do it before the shipping rebounds!

The Champlain Canal is also part of the NYS Canal System, which branches east off the Hudson where the Erie branches west, just north of Troy. It continues 70 miles to Whitehall, N.Y, the southernmost tip of LC. It opened in 1823, two years before the Erie, to support the timber, ore and quarry industries in the Adirondacks.

The Erie or Champlain are the NYS transit options for the Great Loop. A half-year or more journey of: the intracoastal waterway down to Florida; around the Keys to the Gulf of Mexico; up the Mississippi; across the Great Lakes to western NY; then the Erie canal to the Hudson River, or the St. Lawrence to Lake Champlain to the Champlain Canal; finishing it off with NYC.

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#3
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Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/09/2018 12:53 AM

Around 1989, my mother and father completed the Great Loop in the other direction. They did it in a 41 foot motor ketch. They started from Cape Cod, and up the Hudson and through the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. Headed down the Mississippi and then the Tombigbee coming out into the Gulf near Mobile, Alabama. My wife and I drove from Georgia to Mobile to help them re-step the mast before they headed into the Gulf of Mexico to Florida where they crossed the Everglades before heading back up the Intra-Coastal Waterway to Cape Cod. My dad always referred to that trip as "6,000 Miles at 6 Miles per Hour". They timed it for the summer months up north and winter months down south.

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#6
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Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/10/2018 9:02 AM

Yet another dream cruise! I'll retire...someday...

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#7
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Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/10/2018 5:23 PM

Yeah, me too.

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#2

Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/08/2018 3:38 PM

I have a friend who twice accompanied a friend pilot a sailboat between the Chesapeake Bay and Ithaca, NY. The craft was on engine power between Ithaca and I forget exactly where on the Hudson; they had to take the mast down at Castleton-on-Hudson. The trip sounded fantastic! Until I heard about the trip I didn't realize the extent of the NY State canal system. Excellent blog; I'm looking forward to reading more.

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#4

Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/09/2018 10:38 PM

"...first American feat of civil engineering..." really?
"...young country also had no trained civil engineers..." - once again, really? All those "new" independent states miraculously appeared and had no civil engineers? Really?
Also, seeing as you invoke the name of the American Society of Civil Engineers why not consult with them before making such outlandish claims?
And I would highly recommend doing some research on the claim/statement "The four men who designed the canal and oversaw its construction included two judges with minimal surveying experience, a 27-year-old amateur engineer and a math teacher. "
Whinging, moaning and bitching aside, it was a remarkable achievement by the people that envisaged it and engaged with the people needed to actually design, finance and construct such a "...significant historic civil engineering landmark..." that deserves a better and more refined commentary.

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#5
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Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/10/2018 8:57 AM

The following is from Wikipedia. The author consulted authoritative sources. Would you like to back up your assertion that the blog author is making outlandish claims?

The men who planned and oversaw construction were novices as surveyors and as engineers. There were no civil engineers in the United States.[16] James Geddes and Benjamin Wright, who laid out the route, were judges whose experience in surveying was in settling boundary disputes. Geddes had only used a surveying instrument for a few hours before his work on the Canal.[16] Canvass White was a 27-year-old amateur engineer who persuaded Clinton to let him go to Britain at his own expense to study the canal system there. Nathan Roberts was a mathematics teacher and land speculator. Yet these men "carried the Erie Canal up the Niagara escarpment at Lockport, maneuvered it onto a towering embankment to cross over Irondequoit Creek, spanned the Genesee River on an awesome aqueduct, and carved a route for it out of the solid rock between Little Falls and Schenectady—and all of those venturesome designs worked precisely as planned". (Bernstein, p. 381)

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#8
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Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/11/2018 11:49 PM

There was no assertion to any "outlandish claims" merely questions as to depth of research and sources.
Whilst wikipedia has uses a commentary on a subject like that should have gone a little deeper. The section from wiki that was quoted was more journalism than validated research...an op-ed if you will.
Point being is that "There were no civil engineers in the United States." is a very broad and all encompassing statement. Did the United States not have any roads, dams, buildings, railroads, et.al the things civil engineers do (or the ones I do) prior to the canal/lock system? Did you cross check the context of that quote from Bernstein?
It was/is a remarkable bit of engineering but it deserves better commentary.

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#10
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Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/12/2018 10:48 AM

The author double-checked with the ASCE to confirm the statement about civil engineers.

I'm unsure what you mean by journalism and not validated research. Good journalism comes from good research. I have personal knowledge that Hannes conducted more than superficial research, in part because he told me some of the purportedly outlandish claims and his sources (his cubby is next to mine). Since this is a blog post, not an in-depth history of canal construction, he presented some highlights which perhaps would entice interested readers to do their own deeper research.

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#9
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Re: America’s First Feat of Civil Engineering is Getting a Boost

10/12/2018 12:06 AM

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