I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.
I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.
Additional words
I hear sagas of old, adventures of new,
Legends and folklore, tall tales and true,
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
Tellers and listeners, youngsters and old,
Victims and villains and heroes so bold.
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Everything in this story is true, so they say
Some of it actually happened that way.
So, we’ll tell all the stories, retell them and then
Listen anew, find what’s true once again.
I hear sagas of old, adventures of new,
Legends and folklore, tall tales and true,
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.
Yes, I think to myself what a wonderful world.
In a prehistoric time, a small group left the camp to forage for food. They wandered farther than they had ever gone before. They came to a steep ravine. They were about to start the descent when one of them held back and motioned for the others to come. There was a tree lying on the ground, tall enough to span the ravine. With great effort they lifted the small end of the tree and stood it on its big end. They angled it and let it drop so it fell across the ravine. It was The First Bridge. As they walked across it, one of them broke off a branch and used it as a walking aid. It was The First Walking Stick. They continued walking until they came to a field of berries. As they filled their pouches with berries, one of them was attacked by a bear. They started to run away but one of them had the idea to use the walking stick to beat the bear and all the others came with their walking sticks and they chased the bear away. They had to bring their injured fellow back to the camp, but there were unsure of the way. Two of them climbed a tall tree to get a better view. It was The First Lookout Post. Seeing smoke from the camp in the distance, they pointed the way home. When finally they returned home, they so wanted to tell the story of their adventures, they invented language.
The song, Low Bridge, Everybody Down (aka The Erie Canal Song), is widely known. Some people sing it with the words “fifteen years on the Erie Canal” while others sing “fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.” Does it really matter?
The typical explanation for “fifteen miles” is: that is the distance a mule or horse could pull a boat in a six- to eight-hour shift. At a speed of three or four miles per hour, that distance seems a bit short. But, let's not make too big a deal of this questionable distance estimate.
More importantly, “fifteen years” makes more sense in the context of the song and its times. Written by Thomas S. Allen (a successful Tin Pan Alley songwriter who worked in Rochester in this time period), the song was recorded in 1912 and published as sheet music in 1913. At that time, construction of the New York State Barge Canal was well under way (began in 1905 and completed in 1918) and many sections of the Old Erie had already been replaced and abandoned. Motorized propulsion was already displacing mules and horses on the Old Erie and, if anyone had doubts about the demise of this old way of locomotion (and indeed, the whole way of life on the Old Erie) the new Barge Canal would not have a towpath.
This historical context is evident from the sheet music. In the lower right portion of the sheet music cover, notice the newspaper clipping superimposed over the waters of the canal.
Here's an enlargement of the newspaper clipping followed by a transcription.
PLANS TO DISPOSE OF UNUSED PART OF CANAL
Albany, Nov. 23.--Superintendent Peck, of the State Department of Public Works, will recommend to the next legislature the passage of a measure providing for the disposal of the abandoned portion of the Erie canal in such a manner as to secure an equitable return to the state. He believes that this land should be taken over by municipalities for building purposes.
Allen probably learned about the demise of the Old Erie and its replacement by the new Barge Canal while working in Rochester. In his song, he made “Sal” the “poster child” for this dramatic change and its impact on the canallers who made their life on the Old Erie. It is clear from the song that Sal is more than just “a good old worker and a good old pal,” she's a partner, a member of the family, reflected in these lines excerpted from the song:
Where would I be if I lost my pal?
I don't have to call when I want my Sal ... She trots from her stall like a good old gal.
I eat me meals with Sal each day.
The demise of the Old Erie and its way of life is brought into focus with the following lines:
We'd better look 'round for a job old gal Fifteen years on the Erie Canal You bet your life I'd never part with Sal Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
The singer of this song has worked on the Erie for only fifteen years. He might have started working when he was only ten or fifteen years old. He's too young to retire! He has to find another job! And so does Sal. And they're going to look for it together.
In other respects, the song seems to acknowledge that the Old Erie has died and, with Sal as the stand-in for this lost way of life, we're sitting around at the funeral sharing funny stories about good old Sal.
“Giddap there gal, here comes a lock” vs. “Giddap there gal, we've passed that lock”
Here's another change to the words that matters: I learned the words (probably in fourth grade), “Giddap there gal, here comes a lock” instead of the original words, “Giddap there gal, we've passed that lock.” Here's why the words I learned are wrong and the original words are right. First, hauling a 20- or 30-ton boat behind, you can't just suddenly speed up. And, even if you could, you would not take the risk of hitting the lock and damaging your boat or, damaging the lock and getting fined by the Canal commission. Second, while the boat is in the lock chamber, the towline is detached and the mule takes a rest while the boat is locking through. When the boat is at the new level and the gate is ready to be opened, the towline is reattached and the hoggee has to get the mule going again. The original words make so much more sense: “Giddap there gal, we've passed that lock.”
“You'll always know your neighbor” vs. “You can always tell your neighbor”
I learned the words:
You'll always know your neighbor You'll always know your pal If you've ever navigated on The Erie Canal
But, the original words are:
You can always tell your neighbor You can always tell your pal If he's ever navigated on The Erie Canal
Again, in the context of the song and its times, it makes a difference. The singer of the song has lost his job on the Old Erie Canal and has had to find a new job. Nonetheless, when he meets someone new, he can tell—by the way he talks, by his mannerisms—if he ever navigated on the Erie Canal.
In my webinar, The Erie Canal: A Story of Building the Impossible, I include some of the writings about the Erie Canal, historical and fictional. Here's an addition, a fictional story that was made into a successful film. The film has been lost, but the story has been found.
Although the story in The Girl on the Barge (Universal Pictures, 1929) takes place on the Erie Canal, it was filmed on the Champlain Canal in Whitehall, New York. It received good reviews and did well at the box office but, sadly, no prints of the film have been found. So, this film does not appear in my collection, See the Erie Canal at the Movies. A good synopsis of the movie and its filming in Whitehall can be found here.
However, the movie was based on a story, “A Girl on a Barge,” written by Rupert Hughes,
with illustrations by Jules Gotlieb, published in Hearst’s
International Combined with Cosmopolitan (Volume 83, October 1927, pages 50-53, 97-98, 100, 102, 104,
106), the magazine better known today simply as Cosmopolitan.
Here is the story as it appeared in 1927, also available as a pdf file (54mb) here.
In my presentations about the Erie Canal (e.g., “The Erie Canal: A Story of Building the Impossible”), I often use videos to illustrate specific points. Sometimes I don't have enough time to show them (a full presentation takes at least two hours) so, here they are:
1. To surmount the 90' height of Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River, the builders constructed of a series 19 locks on the original 1825 Erie Canal. Here is Cohoes Falls, as seen from Falls View Park.
2. If Cohoes Falls wasn’t a big enough obstacle, they had to overcome the Niagara Escarpment at the other end of the state in Lockport. Here is a view of the 614' high Niagara Falls, as seen from the bottom.
3. The Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct , originally built in 1844, was restored in 2010. I had a difficult time getting my head around the idea of a canal crossing over on top of a creek or river. This video makes it clear.
4. Given the unprecedented scope and magnitude of the Erie Canal achievement, it’s hard to imagine how people felt when it was completed in 1825. I use this clip, from Ken Burns’ documentary, Brooklyn Bridge, to analogously convey how people might have felt.
5. To suggest what life on the Erie Canal was like, I use some excerpts from the 1935 film, The Farmer Takes a Wife. You can view these scenes here.
6. Most of my presentation focuses on the 19th century Erie Canal. It was replaced by the much bigger New York State Barge Canal. To convey its size, I use a one-minute excerpt from a commercial video, below. The full video (7 minutes), is here.
7. The original entrance to the Erie Canal from the Hudson River is long since buried. This historical map of Albany shows its location, with a modern map superimposed on it.
8. Here is a speeded-up video taken from the bow of Lil’ Diamond IIgoing through Erie Canal Lock 18 in Jacksonburg.
Read about the American Innovation coin Series here.
For more information about the Erie Canal on New York State coins, including alternative designs for this coin, click here.
Designer: Ronald D. Sanders
Sculptor-Engraver: Phebe Hemphill
Description: The New York $1 coin pays homage to the Erie Canal. This design depicts a packet boat being pulled from a city in the East toward the country
areas to the West. Inscriptions are United States of America and New York.
I prepared the following land acknowledgement for a presentation on the Erie Canal. I would appreciate your comments and suggestions.
While I celebrate the Erie Canal, honor its builders, and appreciate its positive impacts, I acknowledge that the Erie Canal is located on the homelands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy—the participatory democracy that predates and served as a model for the United States of America—the lands of the indigenous people of the Mohawk, Oneida, Tuscarora, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations. I acknowledge the Erie Canal's role in the devastation of their ways of living and their restriction to limited or other lands; negative effects that linger to this day. Further, I acknowledge the negative impacts of the Erie Canal as it fostered the westward travel of European settlers into the lands of the indigenous peoples who made their homes in what are now the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. As we move
forward, I advocate the application the Haudenosaunee “Seventh Generation”
value: in every decision we make, we consider the impact on the next seven
generations. Only by listening to Haudenosaunee and other indigenous peoples will we heal the past and create a more viable future based on respect for all living beings.
