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Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire
Conceived in the early 1800s and completed in 1825, the Erie Canal was the boldest and biggest American engineering project of its century, with enduring political, social, and economic effects. It was the Erie Canal that first opened up the West to American enterprise and imagination, bringing vast riches and a far-reaching vision to a rapidly expanding nation. In this compelling narrative, author Gerard Koeppel tells the complete, sweeping story of the creation of the canal, and of the memorable characters who turned a visionary plan into a successful venture. Koeppel's extensive research includes major new findings about the construction of the canal as well as its enormous impact. Bond of Union provides a unique perspective on Manifest Destiny and the beginning of America's self-perception as an empire destined to expand to the Pacific.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published February 17, 2009
10 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Gerard Koeppel
6 books9 followersI write history, mostly New York related so far, mostly in books of my own and others', but also in anything from magazines and journals to historical signage in city parks. I started writing at Wesleyan, for the student paper and in a grueling non-fiction writing seminar with V.S. Naipaul. After college, I was the captain of a charter sailboat with a past, an awful law student, a licensed hack (out of a Greenwich Village taxi garage), and then, for many years, a radio reporter/writer/editor/producer, mostly with CBS News. In radio, I learned to write short and unlearned narrative. With each book of history, I'm trying to do the narrative thing better. I was born at an edge of the Manhattan street grid, in a hospital since replaced by a high-rise condo, raised on the suburban mainland, and for many decades have lived on my native island, mostly at edges of its dominant rectilinearity. I'm married and we have three grown but still health insurance covered children, who may someday cross paths with some of mine. Or not.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 15, 2022
Holy hell I finally finished it. I feel a little bad giving this 2 stars as it was so thoroughly researched, but a few things bothered me:
1- it's too long and soooo repetitive.
2- I got to page 363, where Brockport was established, and feverishly read ahead to hear about Albion, Medina, the ONLY PLACE WHERE THE CANAL GOES OVER THE ROAD, and I got NOTHING. He went straight to Lockport. Albion got passing notes as the home of a few notables, Medina nary a mention. Absolutely unforgivable.
3- there's a lot of real estate given to the politics and not enough to the actual work. Very little mention of the landowners and laborers, or later the Irish workers, who did the canal. I expected more about Montezuma and the malarial conditions but it wasn't dwelt upon. I assume that's because he used only correspondences and other primary sources from the time but it would have helped move the tome along.
I did really like that it brought me some history of the places I know so intimately, and it was exciting to hear how amazing and important upstate NY was early in the nation's history. But again, the parts that I really looked forward to didn't exist.
Side note: Ironically, I bought this book at a small independent bookstore in the bustling canal town of Medina, which again, was never mentioned. Again I say heinous.
1- it's too long and soooo repetitive.
2- I got to page 363, where Brockport was established, and feverishly read ahead to hear about Albion, Medina, the ONLY PLACE WHERE THE CANAL GOES OVER THE ROAD, and I got NOTHING. He went straight to Lockport. Albion got passing notes as the home of a few notables, Medina nary a mention. Absolutely unforgivable.
3- there's a lot of real estate given to the politics and not enough to the actual work. Very little mention of the landowners and laborers, or later the Irish workers, who did the canal. I expected more about Montezuma and the malarial conditions but it wasn't dwelt upon. I assume that's because he used only correspondences and other primary sources from the time but it would have helped move the tome along.
I did really like that it brought me some history of the places I know so intimately, and it was exciting to hear how amazing and important upstate NY was early in the nation's history. But again, the parts that I really looked forward to didn't exist.
Side note: Ironically, I bought this book at a small independent bookstore in the bustling canal town of Medina, which again, was never mentioned. Again I say heinous.
March 20, 2013
The Erie Canal when completed in 1825 was a technological marvel of its day & actually changed commerce in the US forever. However, Gerard Koeppel's "Bond of the Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire" while attempting to be a good history of that famed waterway fails miserably. The book gets mired in it's own political machinations & at times turns into a mini-biography of De Witt Clinton the governor of New York who finally got the approval to do so for the canal. What is even more frustrating at times are the places where it doesn't even know where in history it is at & the story lacks in that way. Granted, there are some fascinating tidbits of information about it & even the conclusion while being rushed does remind us a bit of the historical relevance of this waterway. Buy this book only on a discount rack or get it from the library since paying full price for this historical novel isn't worth it.
October 31, 2010
As a political history of the building of the Erie Canal, this book is excellent. It has much less in the way of engineering detail than Bernstein's _The Wedding of the Waters_, which itself is a little thin on the details.
Canal novices typically ask basic questions about how a level canal works: where the water comes from, how the locks function, how the boats pass, et cetera, and this book will send any such readers to Wikipedia pretty quickly. That said, what this book does very well is to explore the political horse trading that transpired from before the War of 1812 until the end of the 19th century (with scant attention paid to the latter).
The best part is probably that Koeppel explores the Federalist/anti-Federalist conflict involved in the commissioning and funding of such a work. To early Founding Fathers considering this project, basic questions of Constitutionality ruled the day. Koeppel also uncovers the story of the Jeffersonian Southerners attempting to stall the project because they saw the implicit commercial doom of Virginia and the rest of the South. The title is prophetic in that way. The Erie Canal's so-called bond of union caused the United States to grow in a vastly different way than they might have, had England been allowed to continue siphoning off the wealth of the frontier though Montreal. An Erie-less New York would probably have been sectioned off, and potentially the British would have gained control of the Great Lakes area permanently. Arguably, the Erie Canal assured the course of Westward Expansion as we know it.
And at that task, demonstrating the importance of "Clinton's Ditch," Koeppel writes masterfully.
Canal novices typically ask basic questions about how a level canal works: where the water comes from, how the locks function, how the boats pass, et cetera, and this book will send any such readers to Wikipedia pretty quickly. That said, what this book does very well is to explore the political horse trading that transpired from before the War of 1812 until the end of the 19th century (with scant attention paid to the latter).
The best part is probably that Koeppel explores the Federalist/anti-Federalist conflict involved in the commissioning and funding of such a work. To early Founding Fathers considering this project, basic questions of Constitutionality ruled the day. Koeppel also uncovers the story of the Jeffersonian Southerners attempting to stall the project because they saw the implicit commercial doom of Virginia and the rest of the South. The title is prophetic in that way. The Erie Canal's so-called bond of union caused the United States to grow in a vastly different way than they might have, had England been allowed to continue siphoning off the wealth of the frontier though Montreal. An Erie-less New York would probably have been sectioned off, and potentially the British would have gained control of the Great Lakes area permanently. Arguably, the Erie Canal assured the course of Westward Expansion as we know it.
And at that task, demonstrating the importance of "Clinton's Ditch," Koeppel writes masterfully.
May 12, 2024
"The canal was a slender thing: 363 miles across the breadth of New York from Albany to Buffalo, but only forty feet wide and four feet deep.
The age that Erie spawned was short. It was largely over before the Civil War. Later developments in transportation that are still vital—railroads and interstates—might seem now to have been more important than a canal that passed into irrelevance over a century ago. But the highway was laid next to the railroad, which was laid next to the canal that created the path for the flow of people and manufactures to the west and raw materials and produce to the east. ("it is an indubitable fact, that trade is like water, when it once passes in any particular channel, it is not easily diverted or drawn away into another.”)
New Yorkers of Hawley’s time believed that responsibility for the favorable setting to build a great canal rested with the Creator. It was His benevolent design that made New York the place for a break in mountains that otherwise divide the coast from the interior for over a thousand miles. The fact that the Mohawk River ran where mountains didn’t was divine guidance for westward Christians, its valley providence for the canal-minded.
Timing was the key to the advantages New York gained from the canal. If the canal had not been efficiently completed, New York would not have acquired long-term commercial superiority, especially over zealous and jealous Virginia, before railroads made it possible for any eastern state to reach beyond the Appalachian Mountains to the western interior. By completing the canal to Lake Erie in 1825 and establishing trade and travel routes that quickly became permanent before railroads became practical, New York was established as the Empire State, the economic engine and national image of a new global power."
"The life of an individual is short. The time is not distant when those who make this report will have passed away. But no term is fixed to the existence of a state; and the first wish of a patriot’s heart is, that his own may be immortal. But whatever limit may have been assigned to the duration of New York, by those eternal decrees which established the heavens and the earth, it is hardly to be expected that she will be blotted from the list of political societies before the effects here stated, shall have been sensibly felt. And even when, by the flow of that perpetual stream which bears all human institutions away, our constitution shall be dissolved and our laws be lost, still the descendants of our children’s children will remain. The mountains will stand, the same rivers run. New moral combinations will be formed on the old physical foundations, and the extended line of remote posterity, after a lapse of two thousand years, and the ravage of repeated revolutions, when the records of history shall have been obliterated, and the tongue of tradition have converted (as in China) the shadowy remembrance of ancient events into childish tales of miracle, this national work shall remain. It shall bear testimony to the genius, the learning, the industry and intelligence of the present age."
The age that Erie spawned was short. It was largely over before the Civil War. Later developments in transportation that are still vital—railroads and interstates—might seem now to have been more important than a canal that passed into irrelevance over a century ago. But the highway was laid next to the railroad, which was laid next to the canal that created the path for the flow of people and manufactures to the west and raw materials and produce to the east. ("it is an indubitable fact, that trade is like water, when it once passes in any particular channel, it is not easily diverted or drawn away into another.”)
New Yorkers of Hawley’s time believed that responsibility for the favorable setting to build a great canal rested with the Creator. It was His benevolent design that made New York the place for a break in mountains that otherwise divide the coast from the interior for over a thousand miles. The fact that the Mohawk River ran where mountains didn’t was divine guidance for westward Christians, its valley providence for the canal-minded.
Timing was the key to the advantages New York gained from the canal. If the canal had not been efficiently completed, New York would not have acquired long-term commercial superiority, especially over zealous and jealous Virginia, before railroads made it possible for any eastern state to reach beyond the Appalachian Mountains to the western interior. By completing the canal to Lake Erie in 1825 and establishing trade and travel routes that quickly became permanent before railroads became practical, New York was established as the Empire State, the economic engine and national image of a new global power."
"The life of an individual is short. The time is not distant when those who make this report will have passed away. But no term is fixed to the existence of a state; and the first wish of a patriot’s heart is, that his own may be immortal. But whatever limit may have been assigned to the duration of New York, by those eternal decrees which established the heavens and the earth, it is hardly to be expected that she will be blotted from the list of political societies before the effects here stated, shall have been sensibly felt. And even when, by the flow of that perpetual stream which bears all human institutions away, our constitution shall be dissolved and our laws be lost, still the descendants of our children’s children will remain. The mountains will stand, the same rivers run. New moral combinations will be formed on the old physical foundations, and the extended line of remote posterity, after a lapse of two thousand years, and the ravage of repeated revolutions, when the records of history shall have been obliterated, and the tongue of tradition have converted (as in China) the shadowy remembrance of ancient events into childish tales of miracle, this national work shall remain. It shall bear testimony to the genius, the learning, the industry and intelligence of the present age."
June 27, 2022
Definitely closer to 5 stars if you are very interested in all the details of the procedural votes and financing mechanisms required.
A very nice history of the canal and it’s impact on a young nation. The story can get bogged down in the weeds of all the details in this telling, but overall very good.
A very nice history of the canal and it’s impact on a young nation. The story can get bogged down in the weeds of all the details in this telling, but overall very good.
September 7, 2018
A highly readable and interesting history of the Erie Canal. Koeppel has written definitive histories of two of the greatest works of infrastructure engineering in the 19th century: the Erie Canal and the Croton Aqueduct (Water for Gotham).
July 12, 2021
Occasionally gets bogged down in quotations from the players in building (or blocking) the Erie canal. Generally an interesting read that tries to span personal stories and the historical and economic tale of the first path to the west.
October 20, 2014
Bond of Union, Gerard Koeppel
I have to confess up front that I had a difficult time getting through Bond of Union. Please note that my struggles did not affect my star rating. Bond of Union is a professionally researched book about a fascinating topic in American and NY State history. The author is supremely knowledgeable about his subject and it is clear to me that the book is a labor of love. Hence my rating of four stars, which is a high rating from me.
So what were my struggles? What I was hoping for was a book along the lines of David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas. A grand narrative history of canal building, except that the focus would be the Erie rather than Panama Canal. Instead, Bond of Union is a detailed analysis of the political maneuverings and infighting of Dewitt Clinton and a vast cast of characters during the early decades of the 1800s. If you are interested in accounts of debates within the NY State legislature, media duals between anonymous newspaper editorialists, and behind the scenes financial negotiations, then I can highly recommend Bond of Union, for it is meticulous in this regard. If you are looking for something written from more of an engineering perspective, then you may want to look elsewhere. All in all an excellent and professional effort, but not quite to my personal taste.
I have to confess up front that I had a difficult time getting through Bond of Union. Please note that my struggles did not affect my star rating. Bond of Union is a professionally researched book about a fascinating topic in American and NY State history. The author is supremely knowledgeable about his subject and it is clear to me that the book is a labor of love. Hence my rating of four stars, which is a high rating from me.
So what were my struggles? What I was hoping for was a book along the lines of David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas. A grand narrative history of canal building, except that the focus would be the Erie rather than Panama Canal. Instead, Bond of Union is a detailed analysis of the political maneuverings and infighting of Dewitt Clinton and a vast cast of characters during the early decades of the 1800s. If you are interested in accounts of debates within the NY State legislature, media duals between anonymous newspaper editorialists, and behind the scenes financial negotiations, then I can highly recommend Bond of Union, for it is meticulous in this regard. If you are looking for something written from more of an engineering perspective, then you may want to look elsewhere. All in all an excellent and professional effort, but not quite to my personal taste.
June 23, 2010
I recommend this book for all readers who are very interested in American history, residents of NY State with some interest in history, and those of us who actually live next to the longest canal in the world and see it every day and should know "how it got there."
Very few people realize the importance of the canal im setting America on the road to becoming the richest nation on earth by opening up the vast interior of the country to settlement by the waves of imigration from Europe.
This book does a good job of telling the story in grat detail. An interesting detail is the fierce opposition of Thomas Jefferson to the building of the canal. He said it was a fool's dream and would never be accomplished in a 100 years. In reality he knew it would mean the loss of Virginia's status as the leader among states to New York. Because of the canal New York became the "Empire State."
Very few people realize the importance of the canal im setting America on the road to becoming the richest nation on earth by opening up the vast interior of the country to settlement by the waves of imigration from Europe.
This book does a good job of telling the story in grat detail. An interesting detail is the fierce opposition of Thomas Jefferson to the building of the canal. He said it was a fool's dream and would never be accomplished in a 100 years. In reality he knew it would mean the loss of Virginia's status as the leader among states to New York. Because of the canal New York became the "Empire State."
August 8, 2014
I grew up in New York, so the Erie Canal was something we talked about in elementary school. But I didn't really have a an adult understanding of it or a good grip on the political or technical background. This book supplied it.
The book is very heavy on state politics -- the canal was a football between the Clintoninte and van Burenite factions in the state -- and light on engineering. On the other hand, it's basically a ditch, so the amount of technology involved was limited. I'd have liked to hear more about how they surveyed it -- they had to find a level that was flat to within a few inches or a foot, over a distance of many miles.
The author has a good eye for details -- the descriptions of the masonic rituals at various stages of the construction were fun. It wasn't the most reflective of histories, but I learned things and enjoyed reading.
The book is very heavy on state politics -- the canal was a football between the Clintoninte and van Burenite factions in the state -- and light on engineering. On the other hand, it's basically a ditch, so the amount of technology involved was limited. I'd have liked to hear more about how they surveyed it -- they had to find a level that was flat to within a few inches or a foot, over a distance of many miles.
The author has a good eye for details -- the descriptions of the masonic rituals at various stages of the construction were fun. It wasn't the most reflective of histories, but I learned things and enjoyed reading.
September 12, 2014
Ok biased review and rating but this is such a fun read with an ending that is tear jerking. I suppose it's biased because born in New York but whisked to New Jersey only to return 19 years later for good, I'm amazed at how little of new York's history is taught to the elementary school students of New Jersey. We mostly just had Paterson and Lenni Lenape Indians and the occasional Woodrow Wilson anecdote.
Update: this is way more comprehensive than other available materials on the canal's construction. It is light (intentionally) on "canal life" and the demise of the canal. But this is great on construction.
Update: this is way more comprehensive than other available materials on the canal's construction. It is light (intentionally) on "canal life" and the demise of the canal. But this is great on construction.
January 18, 2010
Worth the read for someone interested in the political background of the construction of the Erie Canal. The tone of the book occasionally veers towards snarky comments about some of the principals, but overall is a good read. Probably not a good fit for someone who is more interested in the personal stories of the people behind the canal, or details about the construction of the canal itself.
August 26, 2012
Politics doesn't change... It just focuses on different aspects of the same issues.
This book focuses on the political battles, not the engineering, of the Erie Canal construction.
For my interest, it could have been half the length. That said, it appears to be complete and carefully researched.
This book focuses on the political battles, not the engineering, of the Erie Canal construction.
For my interest, it could have been half the length. That said, it appears to be complete and carefully researched.
February 21, 2015
Enjoyed this and the Artificial River. I think both books need to be read together for a well rounded understanding of the Erie Canal and those involved in the event that altered the American Landscape. This book was slower in pace than The Artificial River, but in depth to the surveyors and sponsors of the Erie Canal such as DeWitt Clinton.
September 19, 2016
A well-written history of the Erie Canal. Very nicely balances the political, social and engineering challenges facing the proponents of the canal. Koeppel tells the stories of the major figures with nuance and also brings in many interesting minor characters. The last chapter might have done a bit more with the legacy of this remarkable structure, but that's a minor criticism of this fine book.
January 13, 2017
This book will most satisfy those interested in American politics (doesn't matter that it's early 19th century politics; it looks much the same as today) and the history of civil engineering. There is a little more repetition of little details than is necessary, but the depth of the research which went into this book is impressive, and its exposition is clear.
August 26, 2009
Oft times tediously detailed about the politics. Did make the point as to how important the erie canal was to the delelopment of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and New York City.
June 15, 2017
Reading on the Kindle App on my iPod Touch.
January 2, 2013
Enjoyed the read about the history / development of the Erie Canal and the area where I spent a fair amount of my life.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews