Going Back In Time

Living close to the east bank of the upper Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota, my framework of "old history" is perhaps the mid-1800's, maybe a bit later, in terms of the existing architecture.  Sure, there are a few older structures, but very few.  The industrial boom in this area was in the 1850's onward, and Minnesota became the 34th state in 1854.

My bike trip ended July 23rd in Groton/Ledyard/Mystic Connecticut seaport, where no road is straight, and the houses routinely date to the mid-1700's.  In between, I have biked through northern Ohio, southern Ontario, the entire "western frontier" of the 1700's that is New York State, the idyllic Berkshires of Massachusetts, and the gently descending roll of Connecticut countryside toward the  Long Island Sound..

The Erie / Mohawk terminus in Cohoes, confluence with the Hudson

I have traveled back in time.  Slowly, evolving with each pedalstroke, visible in all the tangible evidence of "western" human constructions.  And it now makes sense to me.  That sense of the unknown beyond, to find out what is around the next bend.  That is what drives my own sense of adventure on these trips, and what also drove those early pioneers.

The one constant is agriculture - expanded over time farther from the navigable riverways, requiring much arable land to service the expanding population, and the need to move product to ever distant and more populus markets by whatever means most cost and time effective.  And there was much agriculture along this journey - I took advantage of the fruit often.

Water made conveyance easier.  I could imagine the maritime effect on the great lakes - the port villages linking the Erie coastline and imagine such a connectivity even before western civilization arrived, from my perch on the ferry deck.  I could see the curiosity of man unfolding in finding a way to navigate from the Atlantic via the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers to the "great west" of western New York and thus the Great Lakes in the 1700's, passing the six mile trading portage known as the "Oneida Carrying Place" at Fort Stanwix before reaching Lake Oswego and the Seneca River flowing west to Lake Ontario.  Though proposed as early as 1768. it wasn't surveyed until 1808, with the engineering minds then kicking in and figuring a way to construct a canal, with Governor Clinton breaking ground on "Clinton's Ditch" 40' wide by 4' deep in 1817, completed over the next 8 years.  Though certainly not a new concept, the engineering of the canal required immense thought, planning and perseverance - which some consider the Eighth Wonder of the World.

George Harvey:  Pittsford on the Erie Canal, 1837

It is interesting to see what a monumental construction effort the canal was in the early 1820's, and its widening between 1836-62, since there are parts that are up to 70' above the adjacent landscape, viaducts spanning creeks flowing under the canal, and even a road.  It is nothing more then a level aqueduct, originally with 83 locks overcoming 563' vertical rise, of which there is much historical precedent.  So it is no surprise that the concept evolved, but to such a young nation, that it was conceived, engineered and built, paid for by tolls, with such a vision of the future, a risky vision perhaps, that makes it so interesting.  

The five locks in LockPort - a classic town rising on the canal

But don't so many projects with bold objectives rest on a vision? And an uncertain future?  The construction of the canal is no different than the construction of the railroads, the highway system, or even today, light rail and tollways (or perhaps the flyby of Pluto occurring during this trip).  They have spurred new development and required the abandonment of old development, or at least their re-purposing.  The impact of the railroads, and subsequently the automobile, all led to the demise of the canal and the many villages along the route that had sprouted to service the canal, at least in its original version, now returned to the green woods with perhaps a foundation stone to mark its past.

My time travel journey from the late 1900's back to the late 1600's over 888 miles west to east, is over with the meeting at last of my two grandchildren, standard bearer's of some future vision.

Axel Peter Caspar with Henry Peter Caspar Hilger

Journey's end with Charlotte Hilger