THE PROJECTED NEW BARGE CANAL OF THE STATE 



OF NEW YORK.« 



By Col. Thomas W. Symons, U. S. Army. 



In the years following the Revolutionary war the subject of naviga- 

 ble canals was a very absorbing one to our forefathers. In this new 

 and rapidly developing country in those pre-railroad da3^s the impor- 

 tance of canals in the transportation world can hardly be a]3]~»reciated 

 at the present time. Canals were projected all over the country, 

 and many were built. The attention and labors of the ablest men of 

 the period were devoted to canal schemes, their financing, locating, 

 and building. 



A good many of the canals that were built have succumbed to new 

 conditions and been discontinued, being unable to stand the competi- 

 tion of railroads. Some, however, have stood the test of time and 

 have remained important factors in the commercial world to the 

 ])resent day. Without question the most important of these early 

 artificial Avaterways was the Erie Canal through the State of New 

 York, connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie. This canal, 

 although originally built of small size, played a very important part 

 in the settlement of the great West, or what was then the great West, 

 by furnishing a route in connection with the Creat Lakes l)y whicli 

 th(» products of the new western country could reach the markets 

 along the seaboard, and by Avhich in turn it could get its supplies of 

 clothing, tools, groceries, etc., at an economical rate for transj^orta- 

 tion. It is certain that the settlement and development of the New 

 York and New England hinterland were enormously expedited by 

 the Erie Canal. 



Locally in New York State the eflect of this canal was shown by 

 the increasing commercial imjjortance of New York Cit.y and the 

 establishment and development ahmg the line of the canal of the 

 most important chain of cities in the country — Albany, Troy, Cohoes, 

 Schenectady, Little Falls, Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Rochester, Lock- 

 port, and Buffalo. 



a Reprinted, by permission, from tbe Bulletin of the American Geographical 

 Society, May, 1904. 



751 



