54 / 87
February - March 2018
54
Find Us On Facebook at Boating On The Hudson
by
Pete Bardunias
President/CEO, the Chamber of
Southern Saratoga County
Celebrating the Ongoing
Legacy of “Clinton’s Ditch”
I
magine the foresight, planning and actual construction of a water-filled
ditch from Albany to Buffalo in the years after the American Revolution, 40
feet wide, 4 foot deep, when such an idea was incomprehensible to most
citizens of New York State. This is the canal, envisioned by New York
Governor DeWitt Clinton, that was still under construction 200 years ago
this year. The waterway was hand dug by many immigrants from foreign
lands, some of whom died in construction accidents and are even buried
within its banks. They worked under terrible conditions by today’s standards,
yet when the Erie Canal, Champlain Canal and other man-made waterways