Black Diamonds and the Queen of the Inland Sea

Perhaps above all else, two major natural features of our mid-Atlantic region helped shape our economic history. This is not to say that they determined the course of our regional history but rather that they wielded a great influence on the way our economy developed. These are the Great Lakes on our border with Canada and the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania. Both fostered enormous endeavors that transformed 19th century American transportation and helped define 19th century America. These accomplishments brought benefits to both New York and Pennsylvania who vied for the country’s economic leadership.

The Great Lakes have often been called our great inland seas and certainly Buffalo on Lake Erie is known as the Queen City of the Great Lakes. The Village of Buffalo was incorporated in 1822 and grew up rapidly around the western terminus of the Erie Canal. The completion of the canal in 1825 brought a flood of new people to the area and the village of Buffalo incorporated as a city of over 10,000 residents in 1832. Geography has not always been kind to the Queen City with its frequent winter blizzards. However, since there were no mountains between Buffalo and Albany, Buffalo’s location proved a boon when the Erie Canal Commission was looking for a western destination for the canal. The village of Buffalo’s strategic location won the day.

With its position between the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal, Buffalo was destined to become the largest grain handling port in the world. Buffalo had become the gateway to the American west. The Erie Canal brought enormous benefits not only to Buffalo, but to New York and the country at large. The Great Lakes are the only major east-west waterway in America. By connecting to the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal opened our western frontier to commerce with the east. The D&H Canal witnessed some of this commerce. Esopus millstones and glass bottles from the Ellenville glassworks went up the D&H Canal and then the Hudson River, across the Erie Canal and through the Great Lakes to customers as far away as Wisconsin and beyond. Barrels of shoes made in New York City from leather tanned in the Catskills and Shawangunks also followed the Eric Canal route to towns along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

Financing for America’s canals was hard to come by before the Erie Canal arrived on the scene. With the opening of the eastern section of the canal in 1823, a canal boom swept America and both public and private money became readily available. Investment flowed in from financial institutions and men of wealth both at home and abroad who were encouraged by the success of the Erie Canal and bought private corporation stock as well as public bonds. Inspired by the example set by these wealthy investors, men of more modest means from the growing middle class also invested in these endeavors. Later, additional capital would become available from increased land values and profits from the new farms and businesses established along the Erie Canal system and in the lands to the west. Furthermore, the prosperity that the Erie Canal brought to New York State and City helped strengthen the New York securities and bond markets. These became important venues along with markets in Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore for raising the funds needed to sustain the canal boom. Eventually, the New York markets would become paramount.

The newly productive lands now accessible via the Erie Canal would drive a growth in property taxes that would help pay for the government’s involvement in building canals. Overall, the Erie Canal helped create the financial conditions necessary for the funding of future transportation projects. The Erie Canal had also become a training ground for many of the engineers who would build America’s new canals and railroads. When the D&H Canal was built, almost all of the engineers associated with the project had been trained on the Erie. These engineers and their protégés would later be joined by West Point graduates and would go on to work on canals and railroads across America.

The Erie Canal truly had a major impact on the emerging young nation. Without the Great Lakes and the access they afforded to America’s interior it is questionable whether or not the Erie Canal endeavor would have been undertaken. (Of course the Hudson River and its connection to the eastern seaboard were also crucial as was Dewitt Clinton’s perseverance in building the canal.) The economic landscape of our nation would certainly have been very different had the Erie Canal not been built.

An important group of canals built during the canal boom was meant to haul anthracite coal from the eastern Pennsylvania coal fields to various markets on the eastern seaboard. The D&H Canal was one of these. The Anthracite Canals, as they were known, were responsible for developing the anthracite mining industry. Homes and businesses throughout northeast America were heated with this coal after anthracite’s use as a heating fuel had been established in the early 19th century. Furthermore, anthracite coal, or Black Diamonds as it was also called because of its hardness, was an important energy source for America’s growing number of factories. The 19th century industrial revolution in America saw the rapid spread of steam-powered plants. These facilities consumed large amounts of coal and created a considerable demand for anthracite.

Given that the use of anthracite had become standard practice during the antebellum period, the growing demand for this coal helped fuel the railroad building spree that overtook and displaced the canal industry. An important group of railroads grew up around Scranton, Pennsylvania built primarily to carry anthracite. These railroads were called the Anthracite Railroads and made much of their profits from hauling coal. Though they started out as dedicated anthracite carriers, they all diversified to carry all sorts of other cargo as well as passengers. They were part of the vanguard of America’s burgeoning railroad network and were later joined by other railroads like the O&W and the Erie who built connections to Scranton in order to participate in the lucrative anthracite market.

Industrial enterprises from glass factories to brick works were fueled with anthracite coal. One important industry was the iron industry that grew up around Scranton. These iron mills produced the anthracite iron that went into building steam locomotives and railroad tracks. From this we can see that there was a special relationship between the fast growing railroads and the anthracite mining industry. Early railroads depended on iron components made of anthracite iron. Starting mid-century the railroads gradually converted from wood to coal to power their locomotives. Many of these engines eventually ran on inexpensive anthracite culm, coal dust which was a byproduct of anthracite mining operations.

The prosperity fostered by the canals helped build strong stock and bond markets. These were important in funding the creation and expansion of the railroad networks that were now spreading across the land. One of the important factors behind a significant portion of the early rail networks was anthracite coal. Without this vast reserve in eastern Pennsylvania, the history of railroading in the United States would have been much different. Though somewhat more expensive to mine and process than "soft" bituminous coal, anthracite was still a relatively cheap source of energy. Anthracite was also quite plentiful, had a high energy content and was rather clean burning. Its location in great quantities near the mid-Atlantic seaboard was a boon for the emerging nation.

The development of the enormous agricultural resources of the American Midwest began with the opening of the Erie Canal connecting the Great Lakes with the Hudson River. This helped feed the growing population of the great eastern seaboard cities. Shipments of wheat, flour, corn and other produce could now be moved to the shores of the Great Lakes, across the lakes, through the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River destined for New York City and beyond. Likewise, the development of the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania helped establish the foundation for America’s rail networks and provided the energy needed to heat the buildings and run the steam driven factories of the mid-Atlantic cities. It’s likely that the economic history of America in general and the great 19th century population centers of the mid-Atlantic states in particular would be dramatically different had the Great Lakes and Pennsylvania’s huge anthracite deposits not existed.