It was On This Day, November 4, 1825, that New York’s Governor Clinton poured the water of Lake Erie into that of the Atlantic Ocean and he said: “May the God of the heavens and earth smile most propitiously on this work and render it subservient to the best interests of the human race.”
Buffalo’s Judge Wilkeson was there with the Buffalo Committee and returned to Buffalo Canal Terminus with a keg of the water of the Atlantic for a similar ceremony. One reporter named Johnson wrote: “On their arrival (at Buffalo) there was a final ceremony, which reminds one of the wedding of the Adriatic by a doge of Venice. The sentiment was quite as poetic.
The committee, with other citizens, went out upon the lakes in a vessel. Then, with appropriate formalities, the water of the Atlantic was poured upon the bosom of Erie. This was the last ceremonial which celebrated the grand wedding of Lake and Ocean.”
Governor DeWitt “Clinton’s Ditch” was dug. The population in Buffalo at the time was about 2,400. The Erie Canal’s presence caused a stirring build up in population and commerce; it would lead Buffalo to incorporate as a city in 1832 with a then population of about 10,000.
Governor Clinton had arrived in Buffalo on the evening of the 25th of October, and toured among festivities days on end till November 4th’s Grand Opening in New York.
The construction of the Erie Canal commenced at Rome on July 4, 1817. It was completed on October 25, 1825, at a cost of $7,143,789.86. The Canal ran 363 miles long. Senator Henry W. Hill, quoted thus:
“For a single State to achieve such a victory-not only over the doubts and fears of the wary, but over the obstacles of nature-causing miles of massive rocks at the mountain ridge to yield to its power, ‘turning the tide of error as well as that of the Tonnewanta, piling up the waters of the mighty Niagara, as well as those of the beautiful Hudson, in short, causing a navigable river to flow with gentle current toward the steep mount at Lockport, to leap the River of Genesee, to encircle the brow of Irondequoit as with the laurel wreath; to march through the rich fields of Palmyra and of Lyons, to wend its way through the quicksands of the morass at the Cayuga, to pass unheeded the delicious licks of Onondaga, to smile through Oneida’s verdant landscape, to hang upon the arms of the ancient Mohawk, and with her, after gaily stepping down the cadence of the Little Falls and Cahoes, to rush to the embrace of the sparkling Hudson,’ and all this in the space of eight short years, was a work of which the oldest and richest nations of Christendom might well be proud.”
The new canal inspired one fellow from Buffalo so deeply that he wrote the following poem, which was delivered at one of the local celebrations on October 26, 1825:
“Strike the lyre! with joyous note
Let the sound through azure float;
The task is o’er, the work complete
And Erie’s waves with Ocean meet;
Bearing afar the rich bequest,
While smiling commerce greets the West.
“Strike the lyre! ’tis envy’s knell-
Pallid fear within her shell
Shrinks aghast-while truth and fame
On glory’s scroll ‘grave Clinton’s name.
“Strike the lyre! ’tis Freedom’s song,
While the red flash, the line along
Tells to the world with echoing roar,
Matter and space are triumphed o’er!
Gigantic genius led the van
While sturdy toil fulfilled the plan.
What boundless gratitude is due
To those whose purpose, ever true
Pursued their course with daring pride
Till Erie’s waves caressed the tide.”
And that’s the news from On This Day from Buffalo’s World.
Bill Zimmermann
Bill runs Seven Seas Sailing school, and is a staunch waterfront activist. He is also heavily involved with preserving, maintaining, and promoting the South Buffalo Lighthouse. When Bill first started writing for Buffalo Rising, he wrote an article a day for 365 days - each article coincided with a significant historic event that happened in Buffalo on that same day.