The schooner Lois McClure’s 2017 voyage celebrated the huge undertaking that began on July 4, 1817 in Rome, NY, when ground was broken for the construction of the Erie Canal. Although it was sarcastically referred to as “Clinton’s Big Ditch” by skeptics in the early years of the project, the canal became an engineering marvel of its day. By its opening in 1825, the new navigable waterway included 18 aqueducts to carry the canal over ravines and rivers, and 83 locks, with a rise of 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Canal schooner Lois McClure made vivid this gritty and essential piece of U.S. history to thousands of visitors.
