1844-73 Erie Extension (Beaver and Erie) Canal Overview and Lock #10

This canal connected Lake Erie with the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania. I knew of two canals in Ohio (Miami & Erie and Ohio & Erie) and one in Indiana (Wabash & Erie) between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, but I did not know of this one. I learned of this canal while researching the Shenango Dam.

Brochure via LoC

The canal cut the travel time for passengers between Erie and Pittsburgh to 36 hours. [0:26 video @ 0:08]

It was finished in 1841. [0:26 video @ 0:08]

It was finished in 1844. (All the other sources that I read agree with 1844.) The canal was built North from Beaver to Erie. It needed 137 locks. [ErieHistory]

It was 136 miles long. The 137 locks handled an elevation difference of 977' (300m). The 91 mile (146km) east/west Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal connected this canal at New Castle, PA, with the Ohio & Erie Canal. [blogspot]

ErieHistory
"At Sharpsville, Pennsylvania,  lock #10, the only remaining lock, now has a walking trail through it."
[This explains why I could not find it in a satellite image, it is obviously covered by a tree canopy. I think it is along the Trout Island Trail.]

"In 1873, the destruction of an aqueduct across Elk Creek Gorge which had allowed canal boats to cross the deep river gorge spelled the end of the Erie Extension Canal. Some believed that railroad designers had deliberately caused its destruction. Railroads were becoming the preferred transportation of the period; the canal beds provided the perfect basis for the railroad bed." [memory]

The aqueduct was 500' (152m) long and 100' (30m) above the creek. This source put the collapse in Sep 1871. [blogspot]

Given this map, the aqueduct was here.

Map

blogspot and ErieHistory

blogspot

The Canal Museum in Greenville, PA, is at the location of Lock #22. (Greenville also has a railroad museum.)

Update:

Anita Breitweiser Chase Palmer posted ten photos with the comment:

In 1834, construction began on the Erie Extension Canal’s Beaver Division or the southern part of the canal.

The southern ending of the canal was the confluence of the Beaver River with the Ohio River in Beaver County, about 20 miles downstream from Pittsburgh; and the northern ending was in Erie county, ending at the foot of Sassafras Street in the city of Erie. The canal needed a total of 137 locks to overcome a change in elevation of 977 feet.

In the early 19th century, the Erie Extension canal system was a 136-mile-long waterway that connected Lake Erie to the Ohio River and Pittsburgh, it was sometimes used by enslaved people to escape from southern plantations. The Erie Canal Extension ran through the center of Girard, PA beginning around 1840,

German immigrants, who were paid $8 a month, and three jiggers of whiskey a day, dug a canal that was 60 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The primary challenge was in overcoming an elevation change of about 1,000 feet over the entire 136-mile stretch from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. The canal’s elevation was accomplished through the placement of 137 locks, 72 of which sat between Erie and Conneaut Lake. There were 28 locks alone in a two-mile stretch of canal through what is now Platea.

Regular travel began in the spring of 1845, opening a faster and more-workable form of transportation. The canal gave travelers a direct north-south route to connect with railroads that largely traveled east and west at the time. A trip from Erie to Pittsburgh that once took days by wagon or horseback, over rough country roads and Indian trails, could now be done in 36 hours by packet boat for $4. The new mode of travel helped boost the region's population and brought in some notable people, they included famed performer Dan Rice who rode the canal into Girard in the 1850s to set up winter quarters for his circus and to use the transportation system to travel south.

Eventually the Railroad was seen to be more efficient. It was cheaper to build and you could lay tracks almost anywhere. It wasn’t depended on the weather to have an adequate water level, like a canal system, and you could lay tracks way beyond the reach of any canal system.

The official end came in September 1871, when a 500-foot-long aqueduct that carried canalboats 100 feet above the Elk Creek gorge near Girard caved in. Some blamed it on lack of maintenance; while others suspected that people who had an interest in the railroad helped it fail.

The canal is remembered today, mostly by 12 roadside historical markers, all dedicated by the state in 1948 that marks various points in Erie and Crawford counties where the canal or its feeder systems were located.. the former canal bed remains visible in some areas to this day.

Source; Hagen History Blog, Wikipedia

Digger Mincer: There is a canal museum in Greenville, Pa by riverside park. The canal ran through Greenville. You can check it out on on the web.

Gary Dufford: Our local canal extension was in use until 1919 when the big flood when all the dams were destroyed. As far as I know the barges just carried coal from the mines to the coke facilities up and down the river.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10