The Rideau Canal, an inland waterway between Ottawa and Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2007.
According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, the 125-mile canal, completed in 1832, was constructed as a British military project to provide a secure connection between Kingston and Montreal and avoid shipping supplies on the St. Lawrence River, which bordered the United States most of the way between Montreal and Lake Ontario. One hundred thirteen miles of the canal consists of rivers and lakes; only 12 miles is manmade.
The earlier Erie Canal, constructed by amateurs, 240 miles longer, with 59 more locks, and employing no natural waterways, has never been nominated as a World Heritage site.
The Rideau Canal World Heritage designation is a matter of Canadian national pride. The Erie Canal, the greatest state project in history, continues to be deprived of well-deserved international and national recognition.
This may be the result of historic regional political prejudices. The early U.S. government rejected all attempts to participate in the construction of the Erie Canal. Virginian Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison each supported the Powtomach Canal (1786-1828) connecting the Potomac River, separating Virginia and Maryland to Pittsburgh and the Ohio River of the U.S. interior. It went bankrupt. Additionally, Jefferson backed federal construction of the National Road from Washington, D.C., to Vandalia, Illinois, in 1806. It could be said he did not want competition in the race to the interior.
This meant that New York and its 1.3 million citizens, out of a national population of 9.6 million, were left to construct the Erie Canal on their own. A stunning task when you consider the many thousands of workers that were employed in its construction. The Erie Canal’s global importance came to light because it caused the British to construct the competing Rideau Canal in a defensive gesture.
When the Erie Canal was completed in 1825 it was the second-longest canal in the world, behind China’s Grand Canal (5th Century to 1633). As of 2019, 194 years later, it was the fifth-longest, behind the Grand Canal and three Russian-built canals, the Karakum (1988), Saimaa (1856) and Kuma-Maynch (1965). It stands the test of time as a great structure.
With the coming of the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal’s opening, the next step should be taken to protect this great piece of North American and world history: formal World Heritage recognition.
It is time for New York State officials to lobby the federal government to apply for World Heritage status for the canal. At Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises, I have made presentations to upwards of 55,0000 fourth-grade students. The company’s boats have transported busloads of international tourists and families without major advertisement. The canal has been a must-see watercourse to travel by international boat owners. The interest is there, the history is there, and the potential for increased tourism is there.
If the Rideau can be rewarded so can the Erie. If Canadians can be proud, so can Americans.
I do not presume this to be an easy task. After all, UNESCO just named the ancient city of Babylon as a World Heritage site in July, 36 years after Iraq’s application in 1983. There are 10 criteria for selection and the Erie Canal meets three of them:
— Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius. The Erie Canal was designed and constructed by non-engineers and non-civil construction professionals. The canal became the training ground for the men who would become America’s first engineers.
— Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over some time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design. The Erie Canal made possible: the interweaving of European, African, Native and American cultures; the promotion of individual liberties as a part of the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement; the development and spread of the Mormon faith; the settlement of European immigrants as far as 800 miles inland; and the expansion of U.S. exports from the interior of the continent out to the rest of the world.
— Be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change. In “Digging Clinton’s Ditch: The impact of the Erie Canal on America, 1807-1860,” University of Virginia graduate student Paul Volpe argued that: by sparking development of previously unsettled Western New York, the Erie Canal helped New York City become the world’s dominant commercial center; simultaneously it led to settlement of the U.S. midwest and moved midwest commodities — agricultural products, timber, minerals — east and out to the wider world. Volpe found that this New York State project enabled the United States to compete in world markets, and by linking east and west it supported national expansion that was key to preserving the Union during the Civil War.
Win or lose, a World Heritage site application by the United States would cause free global advertising for an area starving for more economic activity.
In your mind, is the Erie Canal worth the effort?