An op-ed by Mark Zupan, Alfred University president, which appeared Sunday, Sept. 28, in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, discusses the historical significance and economic and cultural impact of the Erie Canal, which turns 200 years old later this month.
An op-ed by Mark Zupan, Alfred University president, which appeared Sunday, Sept. 28, in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, discusses the historical significance and economic and cultural impact of the Erie Canal, which turns 200 years old later this month.
"The canal stands as one of the most successful public investments in commerce, reducing the cost of transporting goods between Albany and Lake Erie by 90 percent," Zupan wrote in his guest column titled 'Erie Canal put city and state on the map'. "This transformative project put our Flower/Flour City, Rochester, on the map and elevated New York to its status as the Empire State."
Zupan pointed to a number of historically significant figures who "rose to entrepreneurial prominence in Upstate New York," thanks to the completion of the canal linking Albany to Lake Erie. They include: John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb, co-founders of Bausch & Lomb; George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak; Frank Gannett, founder of Gannett Co.; and Hiram Sibley, co-founder and first president of Western Union. In addition, Rochester became home to two of America's most influential social reformers: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, champions of women's rights and racial inequality, respectively.
"The Erie Canal did more than move goods - it moved people and ideas," Zupan wrote. "It fostered prosperity and cultural openness that helped shape political rights, civil liberties and civic engagement."
