The opening of the Erie Canal was touted as an incredible achievement of human ingenuity, a 363-mile engineering marvel built 200 years ago.
When Gov. DeWitt Clinton completed his journey from Buffalo to New York City on Oct. 26, 1825, the ceremony featured a “comingling of the waters” between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The lake water poured from a small keg made plain a new truth — the lakes would never be the same again.
Clinton was himself a bit of a naturalist, spending time observing birds and fish in a way that sometimes upset his colleagues, said Christine Keiner, chair of the Department of Science, Technology and Society at RIT. Keiner recently wrote a piece on the Erie Canal’s environmental impact in The Conversation. Her interest in environmental history grew out of her Ph.D. in the history of science and technology; she has written two books on the subject…