Chenango Canal Extension in Binghamton


The abandoned Chenango Canal Extension about 1910, now part of Veterans Park in Binghamton. Broome County Historical Society

                                      The Chenango Canal Extension

    {From Pages 8 and 9, “Field Trip Guide April 26, 1997 - The Chenango Canal Extension - Broome and Chenango Counties (Binghamton to Greene) Canal Society of New York State"

    The Chenango Canal Extension was to be the great connection between the New York Canals and the Pennsylvania Canal System and the coal fields of that state. Planners saw a unified series of waterways bringing together the commerce of the Great Lakes and Hudson River with the business of the Chesapeake Bay and points between. 
   The Extension was to be on the south side of the Susquehanna for about 40 miles from Binghamton to Athens, Pennsylvania. When the Extension was built, there was a spur built off the main line of the Chenango Canal to take boats to the Susquehanna River further east than the Chenango Canal originally entered the river. Boats would then cross the Susquehanna in a slack water crossing formed by the raising of the Rockbottom Dam already in the river.
    Rumblings for the Extension began in 1838, just a year after the Chenango Canal opened. A survey was done that year to determine the best route for the canal with high hopes for building it soon. But by that year, New York State enthusiasm for canals was waning and people did not want to start a new one. Also, the state was in a financial crisis and just Brushing the Erie enlargement seemed like a significant undertaking.
    Not much more was officially said about the Extension until 1859 when the route from Binghamton to Athens, Pennsylvania was once again surveyed. Although planners considered putting it on either side of the river, the survey which placed it on the south side of the Susquehanna for about 40 miles won out. The Extension was to be the same dimensions as the Chenango Canal (42 feet wide and 4 feet deep) and would mostly carry coal although iron ore, limestone and lumber were also deemed as products to be shipped in significant quantities on the Extension.
    In 1863, the construction of the Chenango Canal Extension was authorized by New York State. Once again, though, the timing was bad. In a very competitive bidding contest, contractors underbid the engineers’ estimates for the work significantly. Then in 1865 they started construction and the hardships of the Civil War caused the price of the work to go up. Because of the war, all prices were high and laborers were scarce.
    Consequently, the original estimate in 1866 of about $1.5 million to build the Extension was changed to almost $2.5 million by 1872. The contractors had to add to their prices as they faced unexpected rock, quicksand and porous soils while building the new canal. River flooding made it necessary to raise the embankments. On top of it all, interest in the lateral canals in general was waning. The city of  Binghamton by 1872 had closed part of the Chenango Canal in the city to form State Street.
  During the struggle to build the Chenango Canal Extension, a private company constructed the Junction Canal in 1856. This canal linked the Pennsylvania canal system with the Chemung Canal at Elmira. The Chemung connected to the Erie Canal through Seneca Lake. So this short canal essentially accomplished what the Chenango Extension was trying to do. But still money was poured into the Extension project to "complete" the Chenango Canal, as advocates were claiming needed to be done through the Extension to improve the success of the Chenango.
    Although 30 miles of the Chenango Canal were under contract at one time, that part was hardly considered completed when funds ran out in 1872. In the last two years, work on the canal was concentrated between Binghamton and Owego, about 23 miles, and was designed only to protect the existing work. The last 10 miles to Athens were never even begun.



 The Chenango Valley Extension is the line running parallel to the Susquehanna River.  The photo dates from about 1881.  The extension was never completed and much was just filled in for expansion. Broome County Historical Society

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