Ohio and Erie Canal Lock 16

Picture it: you're a big time producer of something, maybe pig iron south of Columbus. You know there are plenty of buyers for your iron. Factories and mills in places like Cleveland and Buffalo are just dying to turn iron into expensive things.

There's a minor problem, however...those places are hundreds of miles away. And there's no interstate highway system to send truckloads of iron down. There are hardly roads at all, and even fewer trucks. There also isn't a  railroad, because in the 1820's that little world changer hadn't arrived yet.

So what do you do? Use the rivers, of course. Well, if you're able. Rivers are great, but you still have to get to them, challenging with limited overland options. They also have to have enough water in them to float your barges, but not so much water that your barges crash against the river banks and obstacles. Plus, if you're trying to go up river with a heavy load that might be difficult, expensive, or even impossible if there are falls along the way. Finally, the river you have might not even go within a hundred miles of your customers.

For these (and most likely some other) reasons, canal systems were dug all over the place. You had them in England, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, in New York. And right here in Ohio, both in the East and the West of the state. I find it interesting that ground was broken on the Ohio and Erie Canal not far from Lock 16 pictured here--in Newark, about as close to Columbus as the canal would ever get on it's way to Portsmouth. This is a difficult thing to comprehend for the modern Ohioan.

Of course, the coming of the railroads largely put the canals out of business because they could move freight so much more quickly than the average 3 mph the canals could attain. Many of the right of ways used by the canals were passed to those rail roads or otherwise developed by private citizens until not much sign of the might canal network remains. However, if you know where to look you can still see reminders of the days when 3 mph in a boat being hauled by a mule was the best way to move 10 tons of freight.

Locks--in case you're not familiar with this somewhat obscure piece of technology--are the system used in canals to move boats through different elevations. A boat needing to move from upriver with a nice high water level would need a safe way to navigate a 5-10 foot drop in elevation, since you can't send a boat loaded with 10 tons of anything up (or even down) a stretch of rapids or mini falls.

The boat moves into the lock--this stone channel pictured below--and a set of gates are opened while another is closed. Moving down stream, the gates (which rested in the cutouts pictured above, where even today you can see where the stone was worn smooth by the opening and closing) are closed after the boat--and the ones at the far end open, allowing the boat and all the trapped water to flow safely on the way. If the boat is moving back upstream, the gates up river are opened--to allow water to flood into the lock, and lift the boat up to the proper height.