The Erie Canal Was Refused EVERY Federal Dollar. What New York Did Instead Changed America

The Erie Canal, told as money. In 1817 the federal government refused to pay for it, so New York State borrowed roughly $7,000,000 against tolls on a canal nobody had dug yet, through 363 miles of forest and fever swamp. This is the story of who lent that money, who died in the Montezuma marshes digging it, and who collected when the tolls cleared the whole debt in about 9 years. Every episode of The Concrete Ledger asks the same three questions about an American thing that got built: who paid for it, who died building it, and who ended up collecting. This one follows the bond Washington would not underwrite, the 6% it paid, the uncounted laborers who dug it through malaria, and the canal boom that bankrupted nearly every state that tried to copy New York without its luck. Chapters: 0:00 Washington Says No 1:45 Clinton's Folly 3:44 Selling the Bonds 7:06 The Fever in the Marsh 8:43 Digging the Middle First 12:01 Who Collected the Money 17:18 The Canal Boom That Failed Sources / further reading: New York State Canal Board and Canal Fund Commissioners, Annual Reports, 1817-1837 (New York State Archives). - the canal bond authorizations and the annual toll receipts Laws of the State of New York, the April 1817 canal act (New York State Archives). - the state's authority to borrow and to pledge the future tolls Annals of Congress, the Bonus Bill and President Madison's veto, March 1817 (Library of Congress). - the federal refusal to fund internal improvements Chronicling America historic newspapers, 1817-1837 (Library of Congress). - the 1825 opening, the Wedding of the Waters, and the Panic of 1837 U.S. Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics historical wage and price series (BLS-CENSUS). - a canal digger's daily wage and the collapse in freight cost For general interest and historical education. Figures are drawn from the public record; where the record is disputed, the video says so. #ErieCanal #AmericanHistory #EconomicHistory #Infrastructure #NewYork