Erie Canal Chronology and Bibliography

1699

• French Engineer Vauban suggests canal between Lakes Erie and Ontario.

1724

• Cadwallader Colden proposes canal linking Lake Erie and Hudson River.

1768

• Letter from H. Moore to the Earl of Hillsborough containing suggestions for a canal and locks around Canajoharie Falls on the Mohawk river.

1784

• Christopher Colles proposes improving navigation of Mohawk River.

1785

• Proposals for the speedy settlement of the waste and unappropriated lands of the western frontiers of New York, and for the improvement of the inland navigation between Albany and Oswego by Christopher Colles.

1786

• An act for improving the navigation of the Mohawk river, Wood creek, and the Onondaga river, with a view to opening an inland navigation to Oswego and for extending the same, if practicable, to Lake Erie. Bill defeated.

1791

• March 21, act authorizing survey and estimates for Mohawk and Hudson rivers and Wood creek

1792

• General History of Inland Navigation Foreign and Domestic by J.A. Phillips.
• A forecaste of the Erie canal, July 13, 1792 by Francis Adrian Vanderkemp.
• March 30, NY legislature passes "an act for establishing and opening lock navigation within the state."
• September, Report of a committee appointed to explore the western waters in the state of New York, for the purpose of prosecuting the inland lock navigation.
• Western Inland Lock Navigation Company Incorporated to open a navigable waterway from Albany to Lakes Seneca and Ontario.
• Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company Incorporated to improve navigation between the Hudson and Lake Champlain.
• Private firm builds locks to bypass Little Falls. First locks built in U.S.

1796

• A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation by Robert Fulton.
• First Report of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company

1797

• February 5 letter from Robert Fulton to President Washington referring to potential canal improvements, including a canal to Lake Erie.

1798

• Niagara Canal Company incorporated to build a canal between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.
• Second Report of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company

1807

• July 12, Letter from Jesse Hawley to Erastus Granger projection of Erie Canal.

1808

• Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the subject of Public Roads and Canals made in pursuance of a resolution of Senate on March 2, 1807 by Albert Gallatin.

1811

• February, Report of the Commissioners appointed to explore the route of inland navigation from Hudson's river to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

1816

• February 16, Memorial of the Citizens of New York, in Favour of a Canal Navigation between the Great Western Lakes and the Tide-waters of the Hudson. Drafted by De Witt Clinton and signed by many citizens, it made a deep impression on the Legislature.
• April 17, NY Legislature passes a canal law.
• De Witt Clinton's Canal Visit to Buffalo in 1816

1817

• Reminiscences of Surveys of the Erie Canal in 1816-17 by William C. Young, a rodman on two of the engineering and surveying parties.
• July 4, Canal construction began at Rome, NY.

1818

• A Southern Route Proposed for the Canal

1819

• Essay on "Canals" in Abraham Rees's Cyclopedia, became the basic textbook for American canal engineers.
• 23 October, middle section of canal opened from Utica to Rome, 96 miles.
• 24 November, Champlain Canal opened.

1820

• History of the western canals in the state of New York, 1788-1819 by Elkanah Watson.
• The Buffalo Memorial of 1820
• A Tour from Rochester to Utica in 1820 by John Howison.

1822

• 2 July, river boats began using canal section from Genesee river to Pittsford, with overland connection for several miles during Irondequoit valley embankment completed in October.
• October, 180 miles of canal open from Rochester to Little Falls.

1823

• October 1, eastern section of Canal completed, continuous navigation possible from Genesee River to Albany and Lake Champlain.
• October 6, 802 foot stone aqueduct over Genesee river opened in Rochester.

1824

• April, Brockport - Rochester section opened.

1825

• October 26, first passage through canal from Lake Erie to New York City.
  • 363 miles in length, 40 feet wide, 4 feet deep, max displacement 75 tons
  • 77 locks, 90 feet by 15 feet
  • Total lockage 655 feet
• The Erie Canal Gun-Telegraph by Orlando Allen.
• From the Atlantic to Buffalo, by Canal
• Facts and observations in relation to the origin and completion of the Erie canal
• Memoir prepared at the Request of Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York, and Presented tothe Mayor of the City, at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals by Cadwallader D. Colden.

1826

• Journal of a Tour from Albany to Lake Erie, by the Erie Canal, in 1826 by George W. Clinton.

1828

• An Immigrant Couple in Oswego County, 1828 by Thomas and Hanna Boots

1829

• From New York to Niagara--Journal of a Tour, in part by Canal, in 1829 by Col. William Leete Stone.
• Memoir of DeWitt Clinton, with an appendix containing numerous documents illustrative of the principal events of his life and of the early history of the canals by David Hosack.

1831

• Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and Railways throughout Great Britain by J. Priestly.

1833

• A Journey West of Utica in the Mid-1830s by Richard Weston.

1834

• A Canal Journey in 1834 by David Wilkie

1868

• Map of New York canals and railroads (255k jpg)