PEACE ON THE ROAD
The Erie Canal
August 15, 2011
It does not seem to matter where I happen to travel if I take the time to think about my surroundings I am impressed with a feeling that I was born at a very good time in history. I enjoy history and learning about the events that have transpired in the past and there are many time periods that I would like to visit with the aid of a time machine. Even with that being said I was born after the depression recovery during the early part of WWII. I was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam. During my lifetime there has been great strides in technology. The car has gone from fairly basic auto transportation for the average person to autos with AC, power steering, GPS navigation, automatic transmissions and many other things almost standard on any car. Trains have gone from steam to the bullet trains. I rather regret the loss of the stream trains. On the farm where I grew up I saw electricity, natural gas, pressurized water brought in, and the switch from mules to tractors. Even the writing that I do has progressed from a pencil (or crayon) to a computer with capabilities that I have not touched. If I had to write this POTR with a pencil or an old typewriter (which is difficult to correct or change) it would not exist. Photography has gone from a box film camera to a digital SLR and video for me. I could make a list of many other things that have improved for me in my lifetime.
If fate had decreed that I was born about 130 years earlier and near where I am camped I might have had an interesting job. It is possible that I could have had the second highest paying job on the largest (I believe) construction job in New York State up till 1817. Boys about 10 or 12 years old were hired to plant explosive charges (left over from the War of 1812) in crevices too small for a grown man, light a fuze and run for their lives before it exploded. The Erie Canal was built across New York at a cost of 7 million dollars. Today that would be the cost of a few barges. In 1817 it dug a canal 364 miles long, 4 foot deep and 40 foot wide. I remember a song from Grade School about 15 miles on the Erie canal. I found out that the average team could tow a canal boat for 15 miles before it would need to stop and rest and be fed, it was also about 8 hours of work. Some boats carried a team of animals on board to swap out so they could keep going longer than 8 hours. Mules, horses, oxen and manpower was the typical pulling power, but some boats even used teams of dogs. Manpower would assist to get the barge moving and the dogs could keep it moving. A fee of 1 or 2 cents per ton was charged for passage. This small amount repaid the loans taken out in just a few years. The canal was in direct competition with the railroad and was a lot cheaper to use. So the railroads would build their track across the canal in a manner that was designed to disrupt traffic on the canal. In Lockport, NY they built a bridge that was upside down. The normal superstructure was built beneath the tracks instead of over them, thus limiting the height that a canal boat could be stacked. In the areas that steamboats traveled the rivers similar tactics were used by the railroads in a deliberate attempt to destroy the tall smokestacks. The steamboats developed smoke stacks that hinged. I imagine that the canal boats also developed strategies to counter the railroad. We took a boat tour on the canal in Lockport that was very enjoyable. We went upstream through two locks that lifted us up 25 foot each. These two modern locks replaced five original locks that had a lift of 10 foot each. Along the Old Erie Canal there were at least 50 locks which had a maximum lift of 12 foot which allowed an elevation change of about 600 foot. The farthest structure in the picture below is one side of the widest bridge in the United States. When it was originally built it supported a turn-around for the trolly cars of the city. Today there is a Friendly's restaurant on top of the bridge. Towards the end of the tour we passed under two “lift” bridges. Different from the usual drawbridge that is pivoted from one end and the middle is raised these bridges raise both ends at the same time and the roadbed remains level, just higher. Along the side of the canal in Lockport there are several homes that are built of “freestone” that was cut from the Canadian Shield formation there. The local people were given the stone removed from the canal for “free” and all they had to do was haul it away. Stone masons shaped the material and built some very attractive homes in the area. There are many places that a tour of the Erie Canal can be taken. It is a part of the American history that we all know a little bit about and there is a lot more to be learned.
THE FIRST OF TWO LOCKS THAT WE PASSED THROUGH ON THE ERIE CANAL
I keep thinking that I would like to go back to 1960-61 during my first year of college and do something to make me understand the value of the education that was offered to me. I was required to take a class called, “Appreciation of Architecture.” I did not appreciate it near as much as I would today. It has been said that we get old too soon and smart too late. It is so true. Now I drive through town and marvel at the architecture of the buildings. There were many stone mason that worked building the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal itself provided stone for a lot of the building that the masons did. After the canal was completed in 1925 the masons looked for other material with which to build houses, schools, churches and other structures. One materials that they used was cobblestones which could be gathered from farmers fields and the shores of Lake Erie. The stones are a remnant left behind by the Ice Age. Stones were gathered and sorted by size and color. Then the masons would build structures with designs and patterns unique to the individual builder. Typically the structures were built with smaller stones that would fit into a mans hand. They formed intricate patterns on the front of the buildings with simpler designs on the side of the house. One house I walked around had the back built of the largest cobbles in simple rows with the foundation being built from even larger stones which were more like the large stones used in other states and in Europe. The masons that built the houses and other structures kept the formula of the mortar a secret and that formula was lost when they quit building or they died. There are cobblestone houses in a few other states but about 900 structures that were built within a 75 mile radius of Rochester, New York represent ninety five percent of all the cobblestone buildings in the United States. It has been stated that some of the houses took over three years to build. When one of the houses is viewed it is not hard to imagine a mason spending that length of time doing the work. It is very obvious that the building was not only for practical reasons but it was also a labor of love. It is very fortunate for us living today that the masons that built these homes built them to last for many years. The era of cobblestone building lasted about 35 years, ending about the time the Civil War started, with a small amount continuing into the 1880's. Most of the homes were built with fairly thick walls but there were some which used a thin facade that was built over a wooden structure, similar to some of the brick homes of today. Some of the homes that I saw had cobbles that were about the size of a small ducks egg. I think it was this size that was used in construction of the facade homes that I saw.
COBBLESTONE SCHOOLHOUSE WHICH WAS USED TILL 1952
It is very interesting that when I lived in Colorado I did not see deer very often. To see a fawn was very rare. It just about took a trip up into the mountains to feel that there was a good chance to see a herd of deer. Also when deer were sighted there was often a buck that would be in the herd or there would be one not too far away. Here in Rochester it is quite different. Right in the middle of a city area is the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Our travels take us right by the campus a couple times nearly every day. I would say that 9 out of 10 days we would see at least one doe and usually two or three. At least half the time we see a fawn with the doe and often there are a couple fawn. The thing that is strange is that we have not seen a single buck. With an estimated herd of 200 white tailed deer on campus there has to be quite a few bucks. It is obvious that they are simply a lot more shy.
Tomorrow we leave and head back to the Winnebago factory in hopes of getting our leaks fixed.
Till later this is Doug of
Peace On The Road
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