Canal Became Street in Binghamton

            

Binghamton Press
March 11, 1933

                           State Street in Binghamton
    State street in 1933 with its congested traffic and throngs of hurried pedestrians bears no trace of the old, colorful days from 1837 to 1875 when, as the Chenango canal, it formed the chief artery of communication of travel between Binghamton and points north, east and west.
    The white-painted canal boats or “packets” with their cargo of passengers and freight were towed over the placid waters by three horses. Pleasant, leisurely trips were made daily to Norwich at the rate of three or four miles an hour. Boys of the neighborhood coated the stolen rides to Port Dickinson from where  they would “hitch-hike” back to town on another boat.
    Arrival of the packet at the dock just back of Sisson’s store always was announced by the blasts of a bugle. Men working along the towpath frequented the saloon and gambling den of one, “Buckshot” Adams, which stood beside the dock, fronting the canal.
    Gruesome stories are told of the “Buckshot” era, including the murder of a New York canaller who got into a brawl in the back room of the saloon. According to the story, a shot was heard, a body was weighted with stones and sunk in the waters of the canal. The crime was covered up and went unpunished.
    The first boat reached Binghamton over this canal May 6, 1837, and was an occasion for much celebration among the townspeople. Starting from Crooked, now Keuka Lake, by way of the Crooked Lake canal, the boat’s route was through Seneca Lake and the Seneca, Erie and Chenango canals.
    Construction of the Erie canal, completed in 1825, is thought to have afforded the needed stimulus which started among Binghamtonians plans for linking Utica and Binghamton. After eight years discussion and investigation, plans for building the Chenango canal matured so far that in February, 1832, the state Legislature passed an act authorizing the project.
    The Chenango Canal was completed in 1837 at a cost of $1,7237,703. Seventy-six locks were necessary to lift the canal boats from Utica to the highest point above tidewater which was reached at Bouckville, altitude of 1,128 feet, On the Binghamton side, 33 locks were needed to lower the boats to the junction of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers.
    But the death knell of the Chenango canal was sounded when the Utica, Chenango & Susquehanna Valley railroad was completed. In May, 1872, the state Legislature authorized the city to use that part of the canal between the Susquehanna river and the north line of Prospect avenue for a public street. Six years later the city received the right to take over the entire canal bed within the city limits for street purposes.
    

    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

History of the Chenango Canal in Binghamton

Image
Portion of 1855 map of Binghamton showing Chenango Canal near entrance to the Chenango River. Note canal boat basin, dry dock and boat yard off Susquehanna street. From: Binghamton Its Settlement, Growth and Development 1800-1900  William S. Lawyer, Editor. Century Memorial Publishing Company, 1900 (P. 272)  The Chenango canal was authorized by an act of the legislature, February 23, 1833. The work of construction was begun the same year and was finished in 1837, at a total cost of $1,737,703. From Utica, the northern terminus, to the summit of the greatest elevation on its line, a series of seventy-six locks gave a rise of 706 feet; thence the canal descended 303 feet by thirty-eight locks to the southern terminus at the junction of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers in Binghamton.     The feed supply was obtained from the elevated water bodies of southern Madison county, and were Madison brook, Woodman’s pond, Leland’s pond, Bradley’s brook, Hatch’s lake and Eaton broo
Read more

Chenango Canal in the Oriskany Valley

Image
     Model of a Chenango canal boat displayed at Hamilton Public Library made by Lee Brown Coye. Note the sweeps on the sides to enhance navigation.                               It is so easy to whisk up the Oriskany Valley these days in a motor car that you probably don’t think of the place as ever having been isolated. But back in the 1820s, when the main stream of Erie Canal commerce was passing it by, the hinterland folks began to get a persecution complex.     Obviously what was needed was a canal for everybody. And particularly a North-South canal connecting the Erie with Binghamton, the Susquehanna, and the Pennsylvania coal country.    So up and down the Oriskany and the Chenango, folks organized themselves into a mass “pressure group.” They hired their own engineers to make surveys. They sent out promotion “literature” to everyone of any importance. They bombarded the newspapers, and generally launched a lo-year struggle to “sell” the idea to the Legislatur
Read more

Old Chenango Canal at Utica

Image
By the time this photo was taken the Chenango Canal had been abandoned. The scene is north of Court Street in Utica and the New York & Oswego Midland Railroads is on the left. This 1855 map shows how the Chenango Canal intersected the Erie Canal in   Utica, including four sets of locks.     ___________ Syracuse Standard August 21, 1854     Utica, July 30. - Boy Drowned. - A boy about nine years old, son of Joseph Marshall, of West Utica, was drowned yesterday while bathing in the Chenango Canal near third lock. It was his first and last attempt at swimming. _____________ Syracuse Standard Friday, May 23, 1856     Rape Case at Utica. - The Utica Telegraph gives an account of a brutal rape case recently committed near the city by three young men on a girl 12 years of age. The case somewhat resembles the one committed in this city last year.     It seems that a girl, in company with another girl aged about 15, was coming down the tow-path of the
Read more