“[New Yorkers] have built the longest canal, in the least time, with the least experience,
for the least money, and to the greatest public benefit.”
–William Stone (Maybe diff section)
The Erie Canal’s impact was felt primarily (and nationally) at the economic level;
manufactured goods became cheaper, travel faster and trade more profitable. But locally
there was a social and cultural transformation happening. As the names of canal towns
took on a particularly nautical flavor—Fairport, Spencerport, Brockport, more—new
businesses arrived and with them a distinct population, who would be known as canallers
(or often canawlers). These individuals would influence New York’s culture and social
structures in unexpected ways. Some of the contributions related specifically to the canal
and would remain, as it did, in the nineteenth century and primarily at a local level. Other
changes would take root in western New York and play a role in national culture and
social philosophy for centuries to come. (NO)
Speaking Canawler
One of the more fleeting cultural contributions the canallers made was to language. “The
whole fascinating canalization period in American history contributed many nowforgotten terms to nineteenth-century speech; the Erie Canal contributed an impressive
number in its own right.” (Wyld, 15) There were, of course, simple terms and phrases
heard on the canal and off that identified individuals as canallers, like <a href=>“Low
bridge!” the famous warning call also became a sort of badge of canal service and
workman’s bond. The individuals that lived or worked along the canal established a
distinct culture and gave rise to many colloquialisms and regional expressions readily
recognized in the nineteenth century.
Unintentionally comedic, the canallers saw themselves as seamen, and even though their
waterway was an inland one, they felt themselves part of the maritime brotherhood,
giving their speech and clothing a nautical feel. Much of the music and folklore, as will
be discussed, also treats the “Raging Canal” as it would the ocean. And just as sailors
developed their own vocabulary, there was a distinct language spoken on the Erie.
Ballad of the Grand Canal: The Music of Old Erie
A Href (Low Bridge! was a warning call indicating the approach of one of the many
crossings along the canal. The bridges were promised by the state to farmers whose land
was bisected by the canal, and built low in an effort to cut costs. Lionel Wyld points out
that many social climbing canawlers gave themselves away by habitually ducking long
after working on the canal.)