Before Moses Cleaveland landed at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in 1796, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had already discussed connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River as early as 1787. This inland water route would link the East Coast to the Gulf Coast, New York to New Orleans, with the future location of Cleveland, at the meeting point of the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, at the fulcrum.
Washington and Jefferson’s vision to connect Lake Erie to the Ohio River would eventually come to fruition as the Ohio and Erie Canal. Named for the Ohio River and Lake Erie connection, the Ohio and Erie Canal was a part of a national network of inland waterways that connected larger bodies of water and rivers. The goal was to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes and the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. While the U.S. canal system lasted from the late 1790s to the 1930s, its use peaked between 1830 and the early 1860s. The canals served as a national shipping network before the national railway and interstate highway system that succeeded them. They catalyzed new towns along the canals and fueled the U.S. during the first industrial revolution as the leading system of goods transport.
The northernmost segment of the Ohio and Erie Canal was built first and completed in 1827. Alfred Kelley, known as the father of the Ohio and Erie Canal, was the first president of the village of Cleveland, a member of the Ohio legislature and president of the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie. A member of the Canal Commission, Kelley used his influence to convince the state to authorize a $1 million loan for canal construction.
To build the canal, workers came from neighborhoods like the Old Angle on the banks of the Cuyahoga River in Ohio City. The Irish and other immigrants walked to work and were paid 30 cents a day and a jigger of whiskey for their efforts. In later years, pay rose to as high as $15 per month, drawing Ohio farmers off of the farms to join the effort.
On July 4, 1827, the first canal boat arrived in Cleveland. Traveling an average of 3 miles per hour, the boat arrived from Akron to Lock 43 in Cleveland on Merwin, James and West streets. At this site, a future Canal Basin Park is being planned at the northern terminus of the canal in today’s Flats district. This park will also be the north trailhead of the 100-mile multipurpose Towpath Trail scheduled for completion this summer. Through the work of the Cleveland Metroparks, Cuyahoga County, city of Cleveland and nonprofit organization Canalway Partners, more than 3 million birders, hikers, joggers and riders will experience the Towpath Trail this year. The last 5 miles of the trail have been among the hardest and most expensive to complete given the dense industrial landscape.
With partners like Congressman Ralph Regula and the tireless advocacy of local leaders like Tim Donovan and Tom Yablonsky, Canalway Partners and the Ohio and Erie Canalway Association were able get the northern 100 miles of the canalway designated a National Heritage Area in 1996, one of only 55 National Heritage Areas in the U.S. and one of two in Ohio. Two years later, the Cuyahoga River was named one of 14 American Heritage Rivers.
Today, the Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage Area connects to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the 19th most visited National Park in the nation, via a Scenic Valley Railway, an American Heritage River, an American Scenic Byway and the 100-mile multipurpose Towpath Trail. None of these amenities would mean what they do without the layers of history that shaped them. Every day, Canalway Partners strives to connect Northeast Ohioans with the unique history of our region. It’s here, alongside the Cuyahoga River and further to the south, where the confluence of history, culture and nature cross paths along a dynamic path of human experience. Enjoy it.
Chris Ronayne is president of University Circle Inc. and chairman of the Canalway Partners board of directors. He is the former Cleveland planning director.
