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Pre-canal Transportation
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Erie Canal through Lockport (above) and Utica (below) [Young American Republic]
Until 1815, western towns were not much more than outposts with poor access to the coast. The canal opened up cities in New York and further West to commerce, tourism, and a flood of settlers. The combined easy and quick transport of goods and people boosted these cities’ economies and populations. Established cities grew and flourished, and new ones sprang up. Utica’s textile industry experienced new highs while Syracuse’s salt industry boomed. Similarly, Rochester’s flour industry saw an immediate upturn, and the town of Lockport formed from nothing around the locks at the Niagara Escarpment. Buffalo quickly became the busiest lake port in America. Populations skyrocketed in all cities, growing from hundreds and thousands to tens of thousands. The canal facilitated the transformation of New York City and Chicago into great commercial centers as it allowed for more connection.
“By a census taken in 1823, it appears that Rochseter then contained 3731 inhabitants--and from the rapid increase of its trade, it is probable that the number is at present 4500. In 1812, there was not the semblance of a village”
-American Watchman and Delaware Advertiser (1825)
“The chief source of the commercial and agricultural prosperity of Rochester is the Erie canal, as that village is made the emporium of the rich agricultural districts bordering on the Genesee river; and its capitalists both send out and import a vast quantity of wheat, flour, beef, and pork, pot and pearl ashes, whiskey, and so on. In return for these articles, Rochester supplies the adjacent country with all kinds of manufactured goods, which are carried up by the canal from New York.” -traveler Basil Hill, 1829
Canal running through Rochester [The Erie Canal-eriecanal.org]
Clinton Square, Syracuse, NY (1878) [The Erie Canal-eriecanal.org]
“I began to learn that in America the word improvement, which, in England, means making things better, signifies… an augmentation in the number of houses and people, and above all, in the amount of acres of cleared land… rapid increase of population is, to all intents and purposes, tantamount to an increase of national greatness and power, as well as an increase of individual happiness and prosperity."
-traveler Basil Hill, 1829