World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2019
Documenting How “Clinton’s Folly” Became the Eighth Wonder of the World: The Erie Canal and the Historic American Engineering Record
Publication: World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2019: EWRI History and Heritage Symposium
ABSTRACT
ASCE promotes the history and heritage of American engineering and has played a major role in developing the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) program to document historic structures that contributed to the development of the United States. The Erie Canal was a significant early American civil engineering achievement and was one of the first subjects documented for HAER in the 1960s. HAER has revisited the Erie Canal several times since then. Many elements of the original Erie Canal have been destroyed or subsumed by subsequent development, thus HAER surveys have concentrated on surviving parts of the Enlarged Erie Canal. HAER surveys include the aqueduct at Schoharie Creek, Locks 18 and 29, and the surviving flight of five locks at Lockport. HAER demonstrated new integration of industrial archaeology and the study of industrial landscapes in the survey of original Erie Canal locks 37 and 38.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
DeLony, Eric (1999) “HAER: 30 Years of Recording Our Technological Heritage.” IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, 25(1), 5-28.
DeLony, Eric (2001) “Documenting Engineering Heritage in the 21st Century.” Proceedings, Third National Congress on Civil Engineering History and Heritage, American Society of Civil Engineers, Houston, TX October 10-13, 2001, 135-145.
Historic American Building Survey (1936). “Erie Canal Viaduct, Moyer Creek Crossing, Frankfort, Herkimer County, NY.” HABS NY-231, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny0232/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (1969). “Erie Canal (Enlarged), Schoharie Creek Aqueduct, Spanning Schoharie Creek, Fort Hunter, Montgomery County, NY.” HAER NY-6, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny0309/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (1969). “Erie Canal (Enlarged), Lock Number 18, 252 North Mohawk Street, Cohoes, Albany County, NY.” HAER NY-11, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny0027/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (1969). “Erie Canal (Enlarged), Empire Lock Number 29, Fort Hunter, Montgomery County, NY.” HAER NY-17, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny0311/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (n.d.). “Erie Canal (Enlarged), Oothout Culvert & Waste Weir, Lock No. 4 vicinity, near Maplewood village, Colonie, Albany County, NY.” HAER NY-152, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny1365/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (1983). “Eagle's Nest Creek Culvert, Erie Canal to Whitehall Street near Lock No. 2, Cohoes, Albany County, NY.” HAER NY-157, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny1405/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (2011). “Erie Canal (Original), Locks 37 & 38, 84 North Mohawk Street, Cohoes, Albany County, NY.” HAER NY-337, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny2030/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (2009). “New York State Barge Canal, Rexford Aqueduct (Ruins), Route 146 Bridge over Mohawk River, Clifton Park, Saratoga, NY.” HAER NY-384, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny2191/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (1969). “Erie Canal (Enlarged), Upper Mohawk River Aqueduct, Mohawk River, State Route 146, Rexford, NY.” HAER NY-12, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny1114/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Historic American Engineering Record (1969). “Erie Canal (Original), Lock Number 20, Fort Hunter, Montgomery County, NY.” HAER NY-545, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ny2388/, accessed 11 December 2018.
Langbein, W.B. (1976). Hydrology and Environmental Aspects of Erie Canal (1817-1899). Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2038, United States Government Printing Office, Washington.
National Park Service, Department of the Interior (2003). “Guidelines for Architectural and Engineering Documentation.” Federal Register 68(139), 43159-43162.
Whitford, Nobel E. (1906). History Of The Canal System of the State of New York: Together With Brief Histories of the Canals of the United States and Canada. 2 vols. Brandow Printing Company, New York.
Witcher, T.R. (2019). “History Lesson – Fifty Years of Preservation: Historic American Engineering Record.” Civil Engineering, 89(1), 40-43.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2019: EWRI History and Heritage Symposium
Pages: 15 - 25
Editors: Gregory F. Scott and William Hamilton, Ph.D.
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8237-7
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: May 16, 2019
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.