"America can never forget to acknowledge that they have built the longest canal in the world, in the least time, with the least experiance, for the least money and the greatest public benefit."

-Jesse Hawley at the opening ceremony of the Erie Canal.

"The site of Lockport! To tell the truth, it has as forbidding an aspect as any spot that has yet been encountered. Ledges of rock, giant forest trees, log and brush heaps, log shanties and rattlesnakes made up a rude landscape that is vividly daguerreotyped in my memory. The contractors were just clearing away an entangled forest that had shaded the deep ravine and excavating the Lock Pit. Drilling and blasting had commenced; there was a clinking of a thousand hand drills; the blasts in the working hours were in almost succession. The atmosphere was murky with the smoke of burning powder. There was a din of battle and yet but the peaceful pursuit of enterprise overcoming the most formidible barrier to the construction of the Erie Canal. Beyond the deep rock cut, through low, wet, heavy-timbered land the track of the canal had been grubbed. There were uprooted trees, slashings, log shanties, a succession of log cabins, boarding houses and groceries"

-The diary of Lyman Spalding describing the construction of the Erie Canal in Lockport.