19th Century Ohio & Erie Canal

Explore the history of the Ohio & Erie Canal, which traversed Ohio from Cleveland a few hundred miles to the Ohio River at the south end of the state.

#canal #ohio #industrialrevolution #history #historicalengineering

[terryspears]

I recently visited Lock 48 located along route 104 just northwest of Portsmouth in the community of Rushtown Ohio. The stones are still in place and easily accessed. Very nice stone work that was done from 1830 to 1832 according to the historical marker. I have photos of this lock posted on my flickr site of tersan photography, a google search will get you there. It is amazing to see the stone mason's work of smooth cut stone and precisely placed to form the chamber. Almost 200 years old and still there.

[laurapinoniemi]

We love riding the tow path and seeing the canal and all of its history and wildlife.

[JohnHamm-gg]

great topic and content. love learning more from these shorter videos. keep up the great work.

[patrickshannon]

I grew up in Dayton where the massive 1913 flood was a major event and many earthen dams remain today for flood control. There was a brick street in Dayton called Canal St., a filled in remnant of the canal passing through town.

[himat]

Really good informative history, thank you

[aj]

If the canal was still intact and boaters could travel from the Cuyahoga (to lake erie) to the muskingum (to Ohio river), that would be a very busy recreational waterway. I'm sure people would also do miniature great loops

[katieandkevinsears]

I grew up in Dover. Back when the canal ran through, it was called Canal Dover because there were several other towns in Ohio that went by Dover. Dover still has a Canal Days festival every year in the downtown.

[williamlloyd]

Interesting video, great to learn about USA canals.
PS — Took a family vacation in England and spent a week on a canal boat. Great times!

[royalknight]

Summit lake was the lake you are talking about the canal flowed out both ends that had (still has) the floating towpath and. Summit county is named because of this lake being the high point of the Ohio Erie canal. Medina county to the west and Portage county to the east met in the middle of what is now Summit county.

[jkbrown]

Looking through the Industrial Revolution lens, you see that Western Europe is just a big peninsula with a number of slow moving deep rivers penetrating into the interior. England also has easily navigated rivers. Seeing this, I realized the Eastern US is/was a peninsula of a sort with the Mississippi River. With the Erie Canal and later the St. Lawerence Seaway, it is a de facto island in regards to water transport. This is born out by looking at population density which drops off rapidly west of the Mississippi (or away from the Missouri river). Until trains and later the TVA project, East Tennessee was economically strapped due to lack of non-over the road transport.

In contrast, Africa has a narrow coastal lowland with a high plateau interior. The rivers from the interior are fast, with waterfalls and cascades so development had to await the railroads, but even then the steep climbs impacted the economic viability of enterprises away from the coast.

[stevenkirby]

It's such a shame that Ohio has abandoned its canals system. Unlike Europe, England in particular, has taken to restoring thecountries massive canal systems, while Ohio's silt in and disappear.

[Udmudmudm]

Even in Italy, river navigation was very important for the economy, but I have no idea what the percentage is, in kilometres, of artificial canals. A little curiosity, the expression "Industrial Revolution", personally, and I believe throughout Europe, it is associated with the enormous pollution produced by it, in England, these are school memories from 55 years ago...😄

[TDC]

I grew up in Lockland, Ohio, named for its canal locks. Maybe I'm missing something about buoyant vs. land-laden or towed freight, but it just seems like an incredibly thin advantage building canals over improving the required tow paths into actual roads. Why wouldn't they forget about the hydraulic engineering, pick the best road paths (which don't always line up with waterways), and build first-class roads?

[ALKerns-imjk]

It would have been nice if the State of Ohio had preserved a portion of the canal like Indiana did. They preserved 14 miles of a canal system.

[dwmac]

I visited Canal Fulton, OH once on business, and there is a section of canal running through the town, if I remember correctly. Was it part of the Erie Canal system?

[allanegleston]

my late dad was born in akron. he was saying that when the feds made a park there, the feds bought his child hood home and set it back quite a bit. p s this is also known as the western extention. my mom who was an amaetur reserch geneaologist was also knowlagble on the eirie canal proper . one of our ancesters, when he died, found his bill of lading, he was one of the first boatmen on the erie canal proper . we have proof of that . grat job.

[michaelritchie-chib]

If I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1000 times my second cousin on my sister side of the family worked with a guy who’s mailman was in the army with a dude whose neighbor had a boat😮

[nickphillips]

Look at a map. From Akron to Cleveland would be 'up to'... not "down to"