SYRACUSE, N.Y. — As we make our way through 2026, we will shine a light on facets of our community that contribute to an Amazing America. We start this series with a transformative waterway that played a pivotal role in New York’s economic development and the expansion of the country westward.
“Low bridge, everybody down. Low bridge, for we’re coming to a town.” Those lyrics from a famous folk song are about none other than the Erie Canal. When it opened in 1825, the waterway was an engineering marvel unrivalled in North America.
Derrick Pratt, the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, said that at the beginning of the 1800s, merchants did not have a cheap way to reach the county’s interior. The Appalachian Mountains stood in the way and there was no river running through them…