An image of Tug Gov. Cleveland on the Erie Canal.

Digitizing the Erie Canal

Introduction

Erie Canal Overview

The Erie Canal was completed 198 years ago, on October 26, 1825.

Today, NOAA cartographers from the Marine Chart Division are digitizing paper nautical charts—converting to a digital format—and incorporating them into NOAA electronic navigational charts (NOAA ENC®).

History of the Erie Canal

In the early 19th century, New York Governor DeWitt Clinton proposed a plan for the Erie Canal to connect the Hudson River, which runs from the Adirondack Mountains to New York Harbor, to Lake Erie.

Construction began in 1817 and eight years later the canal was completed and open for public use, traversing 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo, New York.

The project was a massive undertaking and at one time more than 50,000 people depended on the Erie Canal for their livelihood.    

Historical black and white image of the Erie Canal at Little Falls. Created between 1880 and 1897.

The creation of the Erie Canal was deemed an engineering marvel and was referred to as the “Mother of Cities” since it gave rise to many cities, towns, and villages in addition to helping establish New York City as a major commercial port in the United States.

Historical colorized Image of Erie Canal at Salina Street [ca. 1900]

Locks

While not the Erie Canal, this image shows NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson in transit of the Upper Beauharnois lock in the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Locks are depicted on nautical charts in various ways, depending on the scale of the chart. They are used to raise and lower ships to different water levels as they transit the canal system—a sort of elevator for ships. The Erie Canal requires 34 locks to navigate the 549-foot elevation gain between Waterford and Tonawanda.  

A depiction of canal and lock symbology used on Paper and Electronic Navigational Charts.  Source.  The different symbols are seen for each type of display.

A depiction of canal and lock symbology used on Paper and Electronic Navigational Charts.  Source: U.S. Chart No. 1

Journey through Erie Canal ENCs from Albany to Lake Ontario

1

Ascending the Canal

At Waterford, a flight of five locks ascends 169 feet, from the pool above Troy Lock and Dam around Cohoes Falls to the Mohawk River. 

Photo: Waterford, Lock 2

2

Ascending 236 feet

Fourteen locks ascend 236 feet into the Mohawk Valley to the summit level near Rome, New York.

3

Descending 57 feet

Three locks descend 57 feet from the Mohawk Valley to Three Rivers, New York, at the junction with the Oswego Canal.

Photo: Mohawk River and Erie Canal

4

Ascending 201 feet

Twelve locks ascend 201 feet to the Niagara River and western terminus of the Erie Canal.

Photo: Mays Point, Lock E25

Erie Canal Today

Festival at Waterford Harbor, photo by Halldor Sigurdsson

The Erie Canal is almost 200 years old and is still used today, but not for the purpose for which it was initially built. During the 1900s, the canal’s commercial traffic began to decline due to competition from railroads, the international highway system, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. In 1972, use of the Erie Canal shifted towards recreational use. In 2000, the U.S. Congress recognized the significance of the canal by introducing the  Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor . Today, you will find people visiting the Erie Canal to learn about its history and use recreational boats, kayaks, canoes, and commercial vessels.

History of NOAA Paper Charts

In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson created the U.S. Survey of the Coast to provide nautical charts to support safe shipping, national defense, and demarcation of maritime boundaries. More than two centuries later, The Office of Coast Survey continues to provide navigation products and services that ensure safe and efficient maritime commerce. 

At the inception of the Survey of the Coast, paper nautical charts were the primary navigational product for mariners. Nautical charts are maps used to navigate over water— they depict the configuration of the shoreline and seafloor.

Nautical charts also show water depths, locations of dangers to navigation, aids to navigation, anchorages, and other features so that mariners can navigate safely and economically.

Today, NOAA’s primary nautical navigation product is the NOAA ENC.  An ENC is a vector database that supports all types of marine navigation. What does this mean in practice? ENCs are loaded and displayed on hardware such as an electronic chart display and information system, an electronic chart system, or a chart plotter for mariners to see their real-time positioning in relation to nautical chart features.

Digitizing Paper Charts

NOAA created its suite of ENCs by digitizing their paper nautical charts. This process began in the early 1990s, and allowed NOAA to create a new digital chart product, the electronic navigational chart.

By digitizing the paper Erie Canal charts, NOAA can now provide ENCs for the canal from Albany to Lake Ontario. As part of the digitizing process, NOAA cartographers standardized the chart scales covering the canal, moving away from the 67 irregularly shaped paper charts in the Erie Canal book chart  14786 . The Erie Canal book chart will be one of the last charts canceled on December 5, 2024.

Erie Canal Nautical Chart and ENC Footprints

NOAA paper chart footprints (red) and NOAA ENCs coverage (blue)

Future of NOAA Charts 

As part of Coast Survey’s  strategic goal  to “Build the next-generation U.S. Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC) suite for improved safety, quality, timeliness, and compliance with international standards”, NOAA is ending the production and maintenance of NOAA traditional paper and raster nautical chart products. The remaining paper charts are only being updated with critical corrections until they are fully canceled.

NOAA is instead referring mariners to their  NOAA Custom Chart Application . The NOAA Custom Chart application is an online map tool which enables users to create their own paper and PDF nautical charts derived from the official NOAA ENC, NOAA’s premier nautical chart product. 

Photo: 1:10,000 scale NOAA Custom Chart output near Waterford, NY 

A big thank you to the Marine Chart Division team for their hard work on this digitization project and for their help creating this storymap. Created by Kayla Maurer and Morgan Zaleski

A depiction of canal and lock symbology used on Paper and Electronic Navigational Charts.  Source: U.S. Chart No. 1

While not the Erie Canal, this image shows NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson in transit of the Upper Beauharnois lock in the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Festival at Waterford Harbor, photo by Halldor Sigurdsson