New York’s Erie Canal opened on this day in 1825, and made boom towns out of places like Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. From that day until 1880, mule-drawn barges transported goods and people between Lake Erie and the Hudson River, helping New York live earn the nickname “The Empire State.” When I was very young I owned a vinyl copy of Captain Kangaroo’s Treasure House of Best-Loved Songs. It had Row, Row, Row Your Boat, She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain and The Green Grass Grew All Around. It probably drove my parents right out of their heads. But the song I remember best from that album is The Erie Canal: “Low bridge, everybody down. Low bridge cause we’re coming to a town. And you’ll always know your neighbor, you’ll always know your pal if you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal.”
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