The Erie Canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, and it greatly reduced the costs of transportation across the Appalachians. Construction of the first convenient cargo route from the Atlantic to what was then “the West” was slow and difficult. Work on the 363-mile long canal began at Rome, New York in 1817, and after two years, only 15 miles had been completed. Strident opponents to the massive state expenditures for the project began calling it “DeWitt Clinton’s Big Ditch,” and demanded that the work be abandoned. But supporters persevered, laborers toiled, and when the waterway was completed, the City of New York hosted the biggest celebration the nation had ever seen.
On October 26, 1825, the first canal boat, the Seneca Chief, left Buffalo. A flotilla of sailing ships and steam barges joined it on the Hudson River at Albany, and escorted it to a landing at New York’s Battery on November 4. “The wharves and shores and the roofs of many buildings were crowded with onlookers…Castle Garden, the Battery and every avenue to the water were thronged to a degree altogether beyond precedent. The ships and vessels in the harbor were filled even to their riggings and tops.” wrote Colonel W.L. Stone, editor of the Commercial Advertiser, and author of the “Official Narrative of the Grand Erie Canal Celebration.” Loud cheers resounded from every direction when a jubilant Governor Clinton ceremoniously poured a jar of Lake Erie’s water into New York Bay. On that day, potentates, organizers and guests of the city received elegant medals designed by Celebration Committee Chairman Archibald Robertson, and engraved by Edward Thomason of Birmingham, England.
Still, city leaders felt that more should be done to cement the importance of the canal in the minds of the people, and voted that a smaller version be struck, based on the Thomason piece. They stipulated, however, that New York artists and American materials must be employed. According to Chairman Robertson’s report:
The medal was engraved by Mr. Charles C. Wright, of the firm of A.B. and C. Durand, Wright and Co…The lettering was by Mr. Richard Trested, engraver and die sinker, upon dies made by Mr. William Williams, worker in iron and steel. The medals themselves were most elegantly impressed by Mr. Maltby Pelletreau of the firm of Pelletreau, Bennett, and Cooke at their Gold and Silver Manufactory, by means of his very powerful and exquisitely adjusted screw press.…
The Erie Canal completion medal was the first entry in what is now a distinguished series, commemorating mighty public works such as the Croton Aqueduct, Atlantic Cable, Transcontinental Railroad, and Panama Canal. Following its distinguished example, medal committees spared no expense and employed America’s finest artists.
