Editing Erie Canal (section)

==Operations==
[[File:Lockport bartlett color crop.jpg|thumb|Operations at [[Lockport (city), New York|Lockport, New York]], in 1839]]

===Freight boats===

Canal boats up to {{convert|3.5|ft|m}} in draft were pulled by horses and mules walking on the towpath. The canal had one towpath, generally on the north side. When [[barge|canal boats]] met, the boat with the right of way<!--How was this determined? A: good q. One would guess it was the boat traveling west as right dominates on all navigations, but one could also have afforded the bigger vessel priority, a citation is needed.--> remained on the towpath side of the canal. The other boat steered toward the berm (or heelpath) side of the canal. The driver (or "hoggee", pronounced HO-gee) of the privileged boat kept his towpath team by the canalside edge of the towpath, while the hoggee of the other boat moved to the outside of the towpath and stopped his team. His towline would be unhitched from the horses, go slack, fall into the water and sink to the bottom, while his boat coasted with its remaining momentum. The privileged boat's team would step over the other boat's towline, with its horses pulling the boat over the sunken towline without stopping. Once clear, the other boat's team would continue on its way.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Pulled by teams of horses, canal boats moved slowly, but methodically, shrinking time and distance. Efficiently, the smooth, nonstop method of transportation cut the travel time between Albany and Buffalo nearly in half, moving by day and by night. Migrants took passage on freight boats, camping on deck or on top of crates.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sheriff|first=Carol|title=The artificial river: the Erie Canal and the paradox of progress, 1817-1862|date=1997|publisher=Hill and Wang|isbn=0-8090-1605-2|location=New York|pages=54|oclc=37690680}}</ref>

===Passenger boats===
[[File:Nearing the Bend by Edward Lamson Henry, pencil and watercolor.jpg|thumb|right|''Nearing the Bend'', a nostalgic image of early canal travel by [[Edward Lamson Henry]], {{circa|1900}}]]
[[Packet boat]]s, serving passengers exclusively, reached speeds of up to {{convert|5|mph|spell=in}} and ran at much more frequent intervals than the cramped, bumpy stagecoach wagons.<ref name="Sheriff">{{Cite book|title=The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress 1817–1862|last=Sheriff|first=Carol|publisher=Hill & Wang|year=1996|isbn=978-0-8090-2753-8|url=https://archive.org/details/artificialrivere00sher|url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|54}} These boats, measuring up to {{convert|78|ft|m}} long and {{convert|14.5|ft|m}} wide, made ingenious use of space, accommodating up to 40 passengers at night and up to three times as many in the daytime.<ref name="Sheriff" />{{rp|59}} The best examples, furnished with carpeted floors, stuffed chairs, and mahogany tables stocked with books and current newspapers, served as sitting rooms during the days. At mealtimes, crews transformed the cabin into a dining room. Drawing a curtain across the width of the room divided the cabin into ladies' and gentlemen's sleeping quarters at night. Pull-down tiered beds folded from the walls, and additional cots could be hung from hooks in the ceiling. Some captains hired musicians and held dances.<ref name="Sheriff" />{{rp|59}}

===Sunday closing debate===
In 1858, the New York State Legislature debated closing the locks of the Erie Canal on Sundays. However, George Jeremiah and Dwight Bacheller, two of the bill's opponents, argued that the state had no right to stop canal traffic on the grounds that the Erie Canal and its tributaries had ceased to be wards of the state. The canal at its inception had been imagined as an extension of nature, an artificial river where there had been none. The canal succeeded by sharing more in common with lakes and seas than it had with public roads. Jeremiah and Bacheller argued, successfully, that just as it was unthinkable to halt oceangoing navigation on Sunday, so it was with the canal.<ref name="Sheriff" />{{rp|172}}