Story of Manhattan, The

<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> <h3>THE STORY <i>of the</i> ERIE CANAL</h3> <p>Everything was going along smoothly when all at once the yellow fever broke out on the west side, far downtown. It raged with even more violence than had the small-pox. Citizens fled, and the stricken district was fenced off so that no one might enter it. It was like a place of the dead, silent and deserted. Many people went far out of town to Greenwich Village, and many business houses opened offices in this little settlement; with the result that Greenwich Village started on a new life, and it was not long before it grew to be an important part of New York instead of a suburb. For many who had transferred their business also went to live there, not returning to the city even after the fever had passed away.</p> <SPAN name='image-52'></SPAN><center> <ANTIMG src='images/image-52.jpg' width-obs='508' height-obs='300' alt='Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden' title=''> </center><h5>Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden</h5> <p>In the year after the fever (it was by this time 1824) General Lafayette came again to America and was warmly received. Landing first at Staten Island, he was, on the following day, escorted by a naval procession and conducted to Castle Garden. A multitude came to voice their welcome and follow him to the City Hall, where he was greeted by the Mayor and all of the officials. During his stay he held daily receptions in the City Hall, and afterward visited the public institutions and buildings. On leaving for a tour of the country he was accompanied all the way to Kingsbridge by a detachment of troops. For thirteen months he travelled through the country, and when he returned to New York in the autumn of the next year, the citizens gave a banquet in his honor, at Castle Garden, which surpassed anything of the kind that had ever been seen.</p> <p>Then General Lafayette sailed away to France again. In the month after he had gone, with all the city cheering him and making such a din that you would have thought that there never could be a greater, in the very next month the city was again all decorated, and more shouts rent the air, for a grand undertaking had just been completed, which you shall now hear of.</p> <p>Ever since the days of the Revolution there had been talk of digging a canal from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean; for you must know that in these days there being no railroads, most of the traffic and travel were done by water. This canal had been long talked of, but no step had been taken toward building it.</p> <p>Now you will remember that De Witt Clinton, while he was Mayor, took a great deal of interest in everything that was for the good of the city. Well, after he had been Mayor for some years, he became Governor of the State, and it was he who came to think that although the building of the canal would be a great undertaking, for it would have to be more than 300 miles long, it might after all be accomplished. For years he worked, with some others, while many said that it was a foolish idea, and too much of a task even to think of. But still Clinton worked at his plans, and finally, the money having been given by the State, the digging of the canal was begun. The work went on for eight years, and in the month of October, 1825, was finished.</p> <p>The canal was a water-way that stretched across the State of New York from Buffalo to Albany and there joined the Hudson River, which leads straight to the city of New York, and so on to the ocean.</p> <p>The people in the city and in the State were delighted at the completion of the work, and on the day of the opening of the canal they expressed their joy as loudly as they could. Governor De Witt Clinton was at the Buffalo end, and he, with the State officers, started in a boat decorated with flags and bunting and was towed through the canal. As the boat set out from Buffalo, a cannon was fired, and many more cannon having been placed each within hearing distance of the other by the side of the canal, in turn took up the sound and carried it along, mile after mile, until the last one, stationed in the city of New York, was fired, one hour and twenty-five minutes after the first had been fired at Buffalo. By this the people all across the State knew that the canal had been opened.</p> <p>For ten days the boats crept along the canal, and at each town bands played, and speeches were made, until on the tenth day the Governor and his party reached New York&mdash;the first to make the journey across the State by water. They were taken to Sandy Hook, the Mayor of New York, with many others, attending, and surrounded by all the ships in the bay, with their colors flying and their whistles blowing. And there at Sandy Hook, Governor Clinton poured a keg of water which he had brought from Lake Erie into the waters of the ocean.</p> <p>Thus were the waters of the Great Lakes and the waters of the Atlantic Ocean united, and the city was illuminated as it had never been before, and great bonfires burned all night, in honor of the wedding.</p> <hr style='width: 65%;' /> <SPAN name='CHAPTER_XXXVIII'></SPAN> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />