EJ LeClair
Teacher: Kelly Sherman
11/4/2014
The America of the post Independence War was a very different place, New York State had been a loyalist strong hold during the war and this had diminished its standing in the newly formed nation. In 1810 Dewitt Clinton, the current mayor of New York City, had the insane idea to connect New York to Lake Erie via the Mohawk Valley the only western pass in the Appalachian Mountains. This seemingly delusional idea would require four surveyors to learn to build canals by building canals. Required the re-invention of hydraulic cement, and create the foundation for New York State to be the largest port in the new country, and later to earn the name Empire State. A farmer in the norther regions of the east coast would need to send their products over three thousand miles, through either New Orleans or Charleston, to be able to get their products to the pioneers expanding west. The pioneers were just three hundred miles away on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains. However the Appalachian Mountains had very few passes and none that could be be easily used on a regular basis to transport the constant flow of supplies the western expansion would require. For a long time it was thought that the people on the other side of the mountains would have to create their own nation since the mountains created such a barrier for communications and supplies it would be impossible for them to participate in the new country. In 1790 the population of New York was only ten thousand people. …show more content…
The limitations for shipping and their stance during the war for independence had greatly diminished New York state, both politically and financially. In 1810 Dewitt Clinton the Mayor of New York City had a plan to resolve this problem. Mohawk Valley was one of the few passes through the Appalachian mountains. Mr. Clinton's plan was to build a canal, while there was some variation in the original destination, the final decision was to go from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. This was thought to be delusional, the canal was to be forty feet wide, three hundred and sixty miles long, and have more that eighty locks at ninety feet in length. This was all to be done without heavy machinery, engineers with experience building canals, let alone through rough wilderness with an altitude change of one inch per mile. President James Madison thought the idea so audacious he rejected the proposal for funding by Federal Government, even Thomas Jefferson thought it wouldn't be able to be attempted for at least another century (Bryson, 2010). Mr. Clinton went to the most qualified people he could find, Benjamin Wright, James Geddes, Charles Broadhead, Nathan Roberts, three of which who were judges and the other a school teacher with their only real engineering skill was surveying. Without Federal funding the State of New York put seven million dollars into the project, and encountered their first huge problem, hydraulic cement, or lack of hydraulic cement. An unlikely hero emerged to take on the problem, Canvas White. Mr. White used his own money, traveled to England and took a walking tour studying canals, and information about adhesion and composition of hydraulic cement (Pierrepont White, 1909).