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after two centuries new york Governor DeWitt Clinton opens the Erie Canal with a triumphant boat trip Buffalo In New York City, a brightly colored replica of the ship slowly recounts its historic journey up and down the waterways Hudson River,
Some things have changed since 1825.
The replica of the Seneca Chief is being assisted not by horses or mules but by a tugboat. sometimes a chest-deep waterway in the middle albany And Buffalo has been expanded. Much of the original route has been replaced. And barges have largely given way to pleasure boats and kayaks.
But the 73-foot (22 m) wooden boat is a reminder of the time when the Erie Canal helped accelerate westward expansion in the United States. Seneca Chief has made more than two dozen stops to welcome visitors over the past month.
“When you step on this boat, you’ll really be transported back to a time when these boats ran all over the water,” said Brian Trzeciak, executive director of the Buffalo Maritime Center, while breaking a lock near Schenectady recently.
“There are people who weren’t even sure if the Erie Canal still existed, who are now looking at this boat and asking more questions about our history. So those moments are the best when we get into those ports.”
More than 200 volunteers helped the Maritime Center build a boat that cleared the canal last week. Seneca Chief heading south on the Hudson River with plans to dock manhattan this weekend.
Clinton was the driving force behind the construction of the 363-mile (584 km) canal between Albany and Buffalo. The massive project took eight years and critics derided it as “Clinton’s Folly.” But the Erie Canal proved its usefulness almost immediately. This dramatically reduced travel time for travelers to the Great Lakes. Shipping costs of lumber, wheat, and flour decreased, and settlements along the route grew into thriving cities.
The original Seneca Chief led a fleet of boats from Buffalo on October 26, 1825. The publicity-loving governor concluded the trip by throwing a cask of Lake Erie water into the Atlantic Ocean on November 4, holding a “water wedding.”
Inspired by Clinton, contemporary Seneca Chief crews are collecting water from sites along the canal and the Hudson River. The crew is also planting white cedar trees along the way to pay a symbolic tribute to the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, who lived in the area long before white settlers arrived.
The water is being stored in a barrel on Seneca Chief and will be used to nourish the last tree planted in Manhattan.