200 Years of the Erie Canal

By: Lucas R. Watson, Layout Editor

Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025 will mark a full two hundred years since the opening of the Erie Canal. That transformation of that small ditch – which made its way across the state, up the escarpment and down to Buffalo – into the Erie Canal is one of the most significant events in this entire region's history. There is next to nothing more pivotal than the opening of that canal, which during construction was given such names as ‘Clinton’s Folly’ or ‘Clinton’s Big Ditch,’ referencing the lead supporter, then governor of New York State, DeWitt Clinton. Opponents thought it would be a failure. 200 years later and 200 years on the Erie Canal, we see it differently.

The Erie Canal was the very first navigable (meaning ships can pass through it) waterway that connected the Great Lakes and in a practical sense, the interior of the continent to the Atlantic through the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal on the Hudson River. We, in Buffalo, can attribute our very existence as a city to that famed canal. This enabled cargo to go from the Great Lakes and across New York State to reach the port of New York, downstate from us. 

So, where did it begin and why? Construction started in 1817 in Rome, N.Y., and was finished on Oct. 26, 1825. The ‘why’ is more interesting, however. It was extremely expensive and risky to send cargo overland back in the early 19th century – paved roads were few and far between, and this was before the age of steam and rail had met the United States. So, if you were in Buffalo for example, it would have taken two weeks to send a wagon of cargo or even a stagecoach from the village of Buffalo to New York City. A canal was seen as one of the easiest ways to do this; looking abroad, many of the proprietors of the Erie Canal saw successes in France and England. But still, why? What was out there on the Great Lakes that necessitated a canal across untouched forests, up nearly 600 feet from the Hudson to Lake Erie, and a vast system of locks and aqueducts to accommodate all of this? To put things bluntly, it was grain. The vast amount of grain and other goods the Great Lakes had to offer made constructing the Erie Canal a decision that at first seemed risky and deemed to fail, but turned it into a resounding success.

But why Buffalo? Why did Buffalo end up being the place where the Erie Canal had its famed western terminus? By 1820 or so, Buffalo was a small village consisting of around 2000 people. It was a trading post, a village that suffered on the frontlines during the War of 1812. There was a harbor, but the Buffalo River wasn’t exactly navigable and didn’t quite make a good harbor for large vessels at the time. Black Rock is a neighborhood on the West Side of Buffalo; however, at the time it was larger and a true contestant for the Western Terminus – it had a large piece of black limestone which jutted out into the Niagara River (roughly where the Peace Bridge is today) which gave that village its name. That piece of black limestone that jutted out into the raging Niagara River created a natural harbor, safe from the current of the river. However, its proximity to Canada was an issue. 

Britain was a recent antagonist in the War of 1812, still very fresh in the memories of the builders of the Erie Canal, and the fear was that if the Western Terminus was placed there, the British could fire their cannons and destroy the canal, cutting off a major trade route. So Buffalo, being farther away and out of the range of their cannons or quick assault, was chosen. But, it was not without convincing. Buffalo had a very shallow river and a sandy bluff that made the river difficult to enter with large vessels. So, an early citizen of Buffalo had taken a team of men and dammed the river on both sides to dredge it out and make it more suitable to be the Western Terminus. Even so, you may notice that if you check a GPS, the river takes a rather weird set of turns before it eventually straightens out and empties into Lake Erie. That’s completely intentional. They had lengthened the river to sell more real estate, more businesses along the river, and with access to Lake Erie and the Erie Canal. It does make it difficult for much larger ships to navigate the river, but that’s something that the builders could not have entirely foreseen at the time.

What is left of the Erie Canal in Buffalo? Well, that’s not an easy question to answer, as truth be told, within the city limits, there is not much left of the original Erie Canal. By the 1880s, it was struggling to compete with the railroads; it’s pretty telling that the second-largest rail hub in the nation was Buffalo at that time, second only to Chicago. This decline led it to become relatively unused within Buffalo; it was filled with houseboats and seemed to be an open-air sewer for the city. By the 1920s, it was filled in, being deemed impractical. The I-190 runs through Buffalo and follows the exact route of the Erie Canal, sitting right on top of where it once stood. Even as it follows the Niagara River for a stretch, it sits on top of where the Canal was. But there have been efforts to reconstruct and restore the Erie Canal area in Buffalo. Canalside is the culmination of it; by the 1970s, that area had been largely grass fields and left empty. It was in the year 2000 a new effort to excavate the commercial slip had developed, the little part that originally joined the Erie Canal and the Buffalo River, and in turn, Lake Erie. This effort uncovered the path of the commercial slip, uncovering old foundations and leading to the growth of Canalside as we know it today. There have been many, many new developments since then and Canalside has turned into an area of recreation and historical significance.

Why does it matter to Buffalo? To put things in perspective, the entire reason why Buffalo expanded to become the city it is today is because of the Erie Canal. It led to Buffalo becoming the largest grain depot on earth by 1855, just thirty years after the canal had opened. It grew Buffalo from a small trading post to the eighth largest city in the nation come 1900 – all of this in 85 years. Most of what we attribute to Buffalo and its growth stems from the Erie Canal. It served as a catalyst for the entire region's growth. Without the Erie Canal, where would we be today?

So, that is 200 years of the Erie Canal.