Throughout history, the corridor along Lake Champlain and the Hudson River served as a transportation route of major strategic and commercial importance. In pre-colonial times it was an important Native American trail, and after Europeans arrived in the early seventeenth century, the Champlain-Hudson corridor became an important fur-trading route. It was again strategic during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, so it was already of considerable importance when canal planning began in the late eighteenth century. In 1792, the Inland Lock and Navigation Company was chartered to develop a water connection between the Hudson River near Fort Edward and the north-flowing Wood Creek, about five miles to the northeast, and to improve navigation on the Hudson River south of Fort Edward. Although that enterprise was not successful, new efforts to connect the Hudson River with Lake Champlain followed. Construction of the Champlain Canal began in 1817 along with the Erie Canal, and after numerous design changes, the Fort Edward to Whitehall segment opened in 1819. By 1823, the canal was opened to Waterford, completing the Champlain-Hudson connection. The Champlain Canal helped ensure New York's primal role as an Atlantic seaport and effectively nationalized commerce by siphoning potash, lumber, grain, and other products from northern Vermont away from Montreal, an important aim of the original canal. In effect, the Champlain Canal became the canal of northern New York and western New England.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Whitehall, New York · USA