Woodbury Historical Society hosts exhibit Sunday on the Erie Canal

Central Valley - The Woodbury Historical Society’s Gatehouse Committee will hold an open house on Sunday, April 20, from 2 to 4 p.m.m with the featured exhibit to be on the building of the Erie Canal system. Mindful that gasoline is a precious commodity these days, the Gatehouse Committee plans to focus on interesting and historical sites in and around our area that are likely to be no more than one tank of gas round-trip from Woodbury. The Erie Canal historic site north to Albany is just such a destination. Originally labeled “Clinton’s Big Ditch” after Gov. Dewitt Clinton who launched the project in 1817, the Erie Canal was considered the engineering marvel of the day when completed in 1825. It included 18 aqueducts and 83 locks, with a rise of 568 feet from the Hudson River in the east all the way to Lake Erie in the west. That original canal was four feet deep and 40 feet wide, and floated boats carrying up to 30 tons of freight. The Canal was such a success that it was enlarged in 1836, 1862 and 1903. The resulting canal, 363 miles long from Albany to Buffalo, was completed in 1918 with a depth of 12 to 14 feet and a width of 120 to 240 feet. Its 57 locks were then able to handle barges with as much as 3,000 tons of cargo, raising and lowering them between 6 and 40 feet depending on the lock. First opened less than 50 years after America’s founding, the Erie Canal is now considered to have been “New York’s Gift to the Nation.” By opening commerce and industry deep into the heartland through the 1800’s and into the 1900’s, the Canal spurred the growth and development of the young country and transformed New York into the Empire State. Today, the Erie Canal is still in use, now used mostly by recreational boats rather than cargo-carrying barges. (To get more information and directions to tour the Erie Canal, go to www.eriecanal.org.) The Gatehouse Historic Site and Learning Center is located on Smith Clove Road (at Pine Hill Road) in Central Valley. The public is invited to the April 20 open house; admission is free. For more information, call 928-6378.