Erie Canal Bicentennial - Ditch Diggers to Tour Boats

(printed in FL Times 1/18/2025)

(Listen to our Unlock Wayne County podcast - Season 2, episode 1 with Bob Stopper talking about the Erie Canal.) https://www.waynehistory.org/podcast

Two hundred years ago, a group of young men, mostly Irish and German, volunteered to dig a ditch deep enough, wide enough, and long enough to carry boats across New York State. A day’s pay was fifty (50) cents and a pint of whiskey.  Accompanied by a few mules and horses, they worked with a pick and a shovel from dawn till dusk. At the completion of large or special projects, they shared a full barrel of whiskey!

For seventy- five (75) cents per day, laborers could volunteer to strike dynamite, scale and remove dangerous rock formations, and work in hip-deep swamps invested with snapping turtles, poisonous snakes, and mosquitoes. High wage earners did not receive free daily pints of whiskey. All laborers were fined one half of the daily wage for broken equipment, cruelty to animals, stealing, fighting, and sleeping on the job.

  On July 4, 1817 in Fort Bull, Rome NY, ground was broken for the first NYS Erie Canal. It was the beginning of what would eventually be called “The Nation’s First Super Highway”. The First Erie Canal, also referred to as “Clinton’s Ditch”, “Clinton’s Folly”, or the “D” canal, was a “contour” canal, meaning it followed the path of least resistance around drumlins, swamps, streams, rivers, and rocks.

The ditch, extending 363 miles from the Hudson River to Buffalo, was 4 feet deep. The bottom width was 40 feet. There were 18 aqueducts and 83 locks, each 90 feet in length and 15 feet wide. Ditch digging averaged approximately 3 miles per month!

In Wayne County there were 10 locks. The rise or lift in the locks of the first canal varied from 5 ft at Lock D 64 in Clyde to 10 ft at Lock D 72 in Macedonville. From Meadeville (Pit Lock) to Macedonville, the locks provided a cross- county lift of 81 ft.  

Although not yet completed across the state, the first canal was in usage in Wayne County by 1822. The canal was completed statewide and officially opened on October 25, 1825. In celebration, the canal boat Seneca Chief, with Governor Clinton aboard, led a flotilla from Buffalo to the Hudson.  

The First Erie Canal was super successful and focused on villages, their products, and their people. Streets were named “Water Street”, “Canal Street”, and “Dock Street”!  Canal Locks became the entertainment center of the canal villages- there you saw up close “them people from far way– how they ate, how they dressed, how they sang songs, and how they silly talked.”

Canal lockage sometimes took several hours. Near the locks were stores and always one or more taverns. It was the perfect meeting place for hoggees, boaters, local brawn, and tavern owners. Wait long enough, and you would see a good brawl. It was not unusual in early morning to find someone dead in a lock. In fact, the climate near the locks in one community, Lyons, was so fierce that the area was named Battle Square!

In some communities, families provided room and board for the laborers. This was especially true if the canal was being routed through or near a family farm. Many of the laborers did not speak English. Supposedly, children in the family taught the laborers inappropriate words and phrases!  Some of the canal laborers eventually settled along the canal with their families. Others did not. In fact, 26 original canal laborers are buried in the Canal Laborer Cemetery on Wayneport Road in Wayne County. The date is 1846!

The Second Erie Canal, begun in 1836, is referred to as the “Enlarged”, the “Improved”, or the “D” Canal. The original ditch was enlarged from 4 feet to 7 feet in depth and from 40 to 70 feet in width. The second canal frequently used the original ditch; however, the “contour” or meandering ditch sections were eliminated whenever possible. Instead of contouring around a hilly field, the canal went through the field. “Low bridges” providing access to the severed acreage appeared everywhere! Single locks were lengthened and converted to double locks, thus providing boat passage in opposite directions. Travel and transportation times between ports and communities were reduced; unfortunately, in Wayne County, many “first canal” communities, such as Lock Berlin and Pilgrimport, were by- passed in the process! Statewide, there were 32 aqueducts and 72 locks. In Wayne County there were 10 locks. Countywise, the locks provided a lift of 62 feet.

The Second Erie Canal, completed statewide in 1864 with a distance of 350 miles, was very successful.  But … times were changing ….  Loaded barges were bottoming out. Wide barges were grounding in unexpected places…. There was talk about a railroad and something called the Saint Lawrence Seaway….

Construction methods and tools were becoming mechanized. Steam powered boat and dredging equipment now replaced the pick, shovel, mule, and horse. Steam power and “modern machinery” could go almost anywhere and do almost anything. Towpaths and hoggees were no longer needed….  A newer, bigger, better canal was needed. The Second or “Enlarged Erie” canal was last used in the 1917 boating season.

The Third Erie Canal, also referred to as the “Barge” Canal, the “Canalized” Canal, or the “B” Canal, began in 1905. “Canalized” became the buzzword!  Suddenly rivers, streams, swamps, rock ledges, and even fields were being converted, sometimes by eminent domain, to canal routes. The Clyde River was “canalized” and rerouted from its meandering wilderness through swampy land into a more direct line to Lyons where it joined the Canandaigua Outlet and the Ganargua (Mud) Creek. It was then renamed the Barge Canal! Port Gibson, a stalwart canal community on the first two canals, was by- passed entirely. 

The Barge Canal officially opened on April 10, 1918. Approximately 340 miles in length, the Canal is 12 feet deep and 120 feet wide, quite a change from the First Erie Canal dimensions of 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide. Although originally opened and built for big barge traffic, today’s “barge” canal (2025) is mostly recreational traffic. Gone are the days of watching huge barges “locking through” laden with grain, oil, stone, and wood products. Private boats, tour boats, fishing boats, solar boats, rental boats, pontoon boats, kayaks, canoes and SUP boards can frequently be seen on the canal waters of today. The “Barge” canal was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2016!

 Canalside communities in Wayne County include Clyde, Lyons, Newark, Palmyra, and Macedon- 35 miles of canal places, characters, and famous events- 200 years of local canal history!  Why not participate and share your canal story during the 2025 NYS Erie Canal Bicentennial! Your neighbors, the world, and even the crew of the replica Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief will be watching and listening!                       

(Sources of Erie Canal Information can be obtained by visiting the New York State Canal Corporation at www.canals.ny.gov, the Canal Society of New York State at www. newyorkcanals.org, and Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor www.eriecanalway.org)