[Leica] Re: Canal boats

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Jul 11, 2007, at 2:35 PM, lug-request@leica-users.org wrote:

> That Recent Unpleasantness?
>
> Sonny Carter <sonc.hegr@gmail.com> wrote:  On 7/11/07, Robert Meier  
> wrote:
>>
>> "Since the advent of rail..." Would that be in the decades after the
>> Civil
>> War?
>>
>
>
> You mean the War of Northern Aggression? ;-)

Regardless of what you call it, the age of rail started long before  
the (multiple named) war. Competitive rail lines started running  
alongside of the route of the Erie Canal as early as 1831. Rail was  
faster but much more expensive. The cheapest way to transport bulk  
cargo was, and still is, by water. A pair of mules could haul a canal  
boat loaded with 75 tons of produce as long as you didn't want to go  
faster than three or four miles an hour. Since most of the cargo from  
the midwest farm states was agricultural goods or raw materials, the  
canal was a natural. In 1852, just before the Civil Aggression  
between the States, the Erie Canal transported thirteen times as much  
cargo as all the rail lines in New York State combined.

The canal has been rebuilt several times, It is now a series of  
damed, canalized rivers which parallels the route of the "Old Erie"  
canal. The old canal was about the width and depth of the British  
canals that Geebee so lovingly photographs. Portions of it still  
remain as a museum.

For foreign LUG members: New York State is no more like New York City  
than Paris is like France. Once you get 20 or so miles outside of a  
metropolitan area the state becomes low density rural farmland. Most  
population centers followed the waterways of two centuries ago. New  
York City is the main seaport, with towns and villages located up the  
Hudson River, the Erie Canal, Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain. Most  
of the rest of the state is wild. In fact the Adirondack Park, three  
times the size of Yellowstone, is classified as "permanently wild."  
It may not be as spectacular as Yellowstone but it has its own rugged  
beauty. Painters of America's first art movement, the Hudson River  
School, were no dopes. They spent a lifetime depicting the magesty of  
the Hudson Valley and the Adirondacks. So if you visit New York,  
forget the fleshpots of Gotham, rent a car and drive up the Hudson to  
Lake Champlain, then follow the waterside highway across the state  
ending at Niagra Falls. Bow in the direction of Rochester as you  
drive by and take a lot of pictures.

Larry Z