Camden Burd (Author)
IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology
Volume: 42
Issue: 2
Pages: 23-34
The Erie Canal was an engineering marvel when it was constructed in the early-nineteenth century. Expanding commercial opportunities to the interior of the continent, the canal quickly became a symbol of economic prosperity for those whose lives were connected to the landscape. Despite its once prominent place in the American mind, technological changes in transportation throughout the twentieth century left the Erie Canal as a symbol of the past rather than an economic reality. Communities that once relied upon the waterway soon felt the negative affects of these technological and economic changes. Fearing that the Erie Canal had lost its prominence in the American mind, local residents as well as state and national politicians began a series of heritage-tourism initiatives to rebuild and rebrand the historic canal landscape. This article examines the history of the formation of the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor as a foundational shift in the cultural landscape. By distributing grants, cultivating tourism, and redefining the space as a heritage landscape, government agencies and regional residents fundamentally transformed the very meaning of the Erie Canal landscape in the minds of Americans. Instead of an industrial and commercial space maintained to facilitate trade, the Erie Canal became an icon of the past, curated to cultivate a new heritage-tourism economy.
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