The mother of Cities

Story by Nate Harrington

Without the Erie Canal, Syracuse, Utica and Rochester might not exist. Buffalo might not still be in the top 100 most populated cities in America, and a city other than New York City might have capitalized on its port to become the nation’s center of trade. 

The Canal’s influence on the upstate region cannot be understated, as demonstrated by its impact on population.

The earliest major American infrastructure project was ridiculed as “Clinton’s Ditch,” “Clinton’s Folly,” and more, as the investment of $7 million (roughly $165 million today) was unfathomable to the early American public. 

But, the project “opened up the entire western New York region,” said Jose Torre, a professor at SUNY Brockport.

The Erie Canal sparked the growth and development of western New York, and its influence didn’t stop there. Much of the development of western America hinged on the transportation benefits and possibilities that the Canal brought. Not only did the Erie Canal arguably mother several cities in New York and beyond, but its influence can still be felt today in things like the state’s population distribution, politics and infrastructure projects.

In 1820, Cleveland, Rochester and Syracuse were not yet defined as cities; Buffalo, Detroit and Utica all had populations of less than 3,000. 

By 1850, all those cities were among the top 40 most populous cities in America, except for Cleveland, which was 41st. This growth is unprecedented, and does not include already established cities like Albany and New York City (ranked as the 10th and first most populous cities in 1850, respectively). 

Before the Erie Canal, “everything was limited to the Hudson River, between New York City and Albany,” said Brad Utter, a senior historian and curator at the New York State Museum. “There were some limited trade routes out in western New York, but (the Canal) kicked it off.” 

The combination of the invention of the steamboat — which allowed boats to travel upriver — and the better ability to manufacture made the Erie Canal’s impact all the more expansive. The cities could manufacture household goods (like cloth and leather) and send them inland, while farmers could send potatoes and wheat back to the cities to feed the growing population. 

This revolution, both in transportation and manufacturing, made the Erie Canal ever more powerful in transforming the country into the global superpower it was starting to become.

The slider depicts city growth (by rankings in the top 100 cities in America) in the Northeast. The number below a city name is its ranking for a given decade. Blue circles show a growth in the city rankings over the past decade, with stronger shades showing larger growth; red is a decrease in rankings. Maps by Alex Levy.

In the 1880s, the original Erie Canal reached its peak, Utter said, and saw the continued growth of Canal corridor cities, with all but Utica (ranked 52nd) being ranked in the top 35 most populous cities, and Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit all in the top 20. During this time, New York City cemented its place as the most populous and prosperous American city. 

While there were some immigrants who took the Erie west, Torre said this boom came from “New Englanders colonizing western New York. … Places like Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, you know, they were out of land for a while.”

The Erie Canal’s cargo industry also had its peak at the time. In 1880, the Canal had an all-time cargo transportation high, carrying 4.6 million tons on its waters. The 1880s decade average was 3.6 million tons of cargo per year. These figures are made all the more impressive when you consider the Canal season is only half the year.

“The Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean through the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, and through various canals connects to the Mississippi River, to the Gulf of Mexico, to the Atlantic Ocean,” Torre said. “Now you’ve got a huge, huge transportation system that hinges on the Canal itself.”

As a result, New York City became a hub for everything: manufacturing, transportation, trade and people. Having a robust transportation system meant New York City could sustain itself through the farmlands in close proximity to the Canal. 

“All of that trade came funneling in through the Canal and down into New York City,” Utter said. “Railroads followed that and also contributed to the continuation of that monopoly on the western trade.”

The largest city in America would only grow, but the smaller cities’ peaks would be short-lived, as trains, which were being built across America, would encroach on the intercontinental business of the Canal.

Initially, trains “had tolls put on so that they’d be competitive with the Canal,” Utter said. “What the railroads would do is in the boating season, they would lower their fees and then in the wintertime, they would jack them up when the Canal is closed.”

Getty Images

Drawing by William Rickarby Miller showing the Erie Canal at Little Falls with boats and people on the shore in 1849.

These tolls wouldn’t be imposed forever, and the train industry slowly overtook the Canal in cargo transported. But the Canal would not be rendered completely obsolete, as it was still carrying millions of tons of cargo throughout a majority of the late 19th and early 20th century. 

And the cities, stimulated by the increasing spider web of train tracks on top of the continuous use of the Erie Canal, prospered even more. By 1910, Buffalo (10), Cleveland (6), Detroit (9) and New York City (1) were all in the top 10 most populous cities. 

By the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Canal, however, the smaller cities it helped establish and grow had begun to show signs of decline, at least relative to other places in the country. By 1920, upstate cities had dropped in the city population rankings. Rochester ranked 25th, Syracuse 34th and Utica 73rd, while Albany, New York state’s capital, had fallen all the way to 50th. 

Cargo also took a step back, with the Erie Canal having less than a million tons of cargo transported on it. The diminishing importance of the Canal meant that other cities could gain increasing relevance, as train transportation and freighting became overwhelmingly dominant, carrying over 1 billion tons in freight nationally.

This trend would not be able to reverse itself as westward expansion and settlement let other cities overtake the once-titans of transportation that found themselves so because of the Canal. 

Later in the 20th century, other factors like white flight and deindustrialization would compound the lack of purpose that Canal cities found themselves facing. Now the only New York cities to remain in the top 100 most populous cities in America are Buffalo and New York City. Detroit is now 26th, and Cleveland is 53rd. 

While this crisis wasn’t only found in cities fostered by the Erie Canal, the rapid growth followed by subsequent decline in Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Rochester, Syracuse and Utica seemed unfathomable, as the major arteries of the entire American economy had once run through them.

For those still living around the Erie Canal and the cities it helped create, though, “the Canal brought them their community, commercial existence and viability,” Utter said.

The decline of the Erie Canal’s prominence is understandable: It has seen nearly every major American conflict and event, and has been open for 80% of the country’s life. Cargo rates have declined, the cities built by the waterway have declined, and in the 1960s, New York state — for the first time since the Canal opened — stopped being the most populous state in the nation. 

Still, the Canal’s influence is undeniable, as 80% of New York state’s upstate population lives within 25 miles of the Canal. The waterway is still an economic force in the state, bringing in $6.2 billion in non-tourist economic activity and $1.3 billion in tourism-related revenue. And I-90, a major east-to-west highway, runs through the same Canal corridor as its transportation predecessor. 

Despite the cities brought to life by the “Mother of Cities” fading in national prominence, the Erie Canal irrevocably formed not only upstate New York but the nation.