But he did not stop because of criticism, and in 1825 the canal was
finished. The undertaking had been pushed through in eight years. It was a
great triumph for Clinton and a proud day for the State.
When the work was completed the news was signalled from Buffalo to New
York in a novel way. As you know, there was neither telephone nor
telegraph then. But at intervals of five miles all along the route cannon
were stationed. When the report from the first cannon was heard, the
second was fired, and thus the news went booming eastward till, in an hour
and a half, it reached New York.
Clinton himself journeyed to New York in the canal-boat Seneca Chief. This
was drawn by four gray horses, which went along the tow-path beside the
canal. As the boat passed quietly along, people thronged the banks to do
honor to the occasion.
When the Seneca Chief reached New York City, Governor Clinton, standing on
deck, lifted a gilded keg filled with water from Lake Erie and poured it
into the harbor. As he did so, he prayed that "the God of the heaven and
the earth" would smile upon the work just completed and make it useful to
the human race. Thus was dedicated this great waterway, whose usefulness
has more than fulfilled the hope of its chief promoter.
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