Vermont To The Erie Canal, An American Road Trip: Agile Technology

Touring and learning about the Erie Canal was not only informative, it was inspirational too. To see how people with vision could not only see beyond the horizon (literally because the design of the canal had to take into account the slope of the land from end to end) and develop/invent water handling equipment (pumps, fittings) as well as gating designs both lift and swing and aqueducts to carry the barges. Then there was the diversion of the canal water to power industries

Many of these designs/inventions were on the fly due to necessity.

The fact that shipping competition made it imperative to grow the canal system after it had been in operation 70 years. It was re routed, enlarged and reinvented. Of course the rerouting of the canal devastated some towns and provided a boon to others.

Of course the canals were not the only fluid, changing thing. Other forms of transport were inevitably making the canal, as a large freight artery, obsolete. The canals were the first ‘Super highway’ handling not only freight but passengers looking to move west. One could also suggest the canal towns/cities experienced the first boom to bust to boom cycles in modern America. This series of cycles was evident in many of the places we saw.

For me ... I was fascinated by the actual locks... the various conceptions and functions as well as the water handling..... I end this section with a collection of locks.