Stop 12: Mule and Driver: Why Mules?

GPS- 43.050895, -76.148949

The mystique of the young lad walking along side the canal boat 

has been ingrained in our collective memories through art and son. 

This is a statue titled "Mule & Driver" that is installed 

across from the Weighlock Building

Created by Tom Tischler in 1987, the texture and detail on this piece
"Mule & Driver" is amazing...a detail of the mule's harness.

Mules pulled the boats, often in teams, before boats were motorized.
This is was only possible because the canal, by design, 

had no current the mules had to pull against.

So why Mules?

Three Reasons:

1- Mules could easily fit on a packet boat for the night in their own stall. They could also get out of the weather if the weather took a turn for the worse.

2- Mules ate half the feed of horses: Less food to pack, more room for cargo!

3- While horses loved you and would go and extra mile or two for you then drop dead from exhaustion, Mules did not love you. They would stop after about 15 miles on the towpath, i.e. 15 miles on the Erie Canal. Union rules, they were done for the day!

Sometimes it was young boys who were mule drivers. 

But often it was a family ordeal!

Some drivers were young, some were older

One boy's experience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7oNKkYFZm8

And you could be a girl!

https://www.canalmuseum.org/the-snubbing-post/in-her-words?fbclid=IwAR0OG7xIuJlkp7S2P-ZwwUhatX6ycvm_PmfcWyX1nRBN-vM2IdLGzL9TNuA

Also, during the canal's lifetime, the term hoagie was not used for them.
It was later term. They were referred to as drivers.

Getting a boat to go through the canal, over aqueducts, through locks, 

and keeping the boat from colliding with others, 

all the while keeping your cargo safe and on a timely pace to its destination took skill!

And so we tip our hats to this duo...

without which, boats would have gone nowhere!

And head onto our next stop...

Stop 11- Weighlock Building: Tolls

GPS- 43.050467, -76.148400 

The Weighlock Building

Home of the 
Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse

The only extant Weighlock Building left from the Erie Canal!

This building has seen a lot...built only two years after Syracuse, Lodi and Salina united to form the City of Syracuse...this building has its own story to tell on how it fits into the canal framework.

The only one left of its kind, the Weighlock Building was originally one of 7 along the canal that helped ensure that everyone paid a fair toll based upon the cargo they were carrying. Boats would enter here to get weighed.

Boats entered the lock area, the gates closed and the water was drained through and underground tunnel to Onondaga Creek. The boat rested on a weighing cradle which took the load weight and the boats registered empty weight was subtracted. Every boat had a registered empty weight. Then the toll was calculated.

And while this is all done with simplistic beauty, 

would this be considered a piece of art?

A Leonardo Da Vinci?

Well It should be!

So what does this building (and other locks as well) have to do with Leonardo Da Vinci? 

Answer: He designed the type locks that engineers later used in the Erie Canal: 

The Mitered Lock!

This miter can be seen in the lock gates outside the building

A short video about the Da Vinci/Lock connection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvO1P4BEYkM

Over the years this building saw...Market Hall,

Syracuse's original seat of government

The new City Hall 

Completed in 1893

Designed by Charles Erastus Colton

"In 1883, New York State decided to stop charging a toll to utilize the canal system, as over $121 million in tolls had been collected, which more than covered the $7 million construction costs. At that time, the Weighlock Building became a dry dock for boat repair and a New York State office building, while other weighlock buildings were torn down. The canal through Syracuse was paved over in the 1920s after the Barge Canal opened to the north of the city."
(per the Erie Canal Museum website)
The second floor was used by the Canal Corporation's Engineering Dept as well.

Then it fell into disuse after the canal era when there were no longer boats in need of repair.
It became home to a new kind of transport...cars! 

A car dealership used it for a while...

...and almost swallowed up by the surrounding landscape, 

like Virginia Lee Burton's "The Little House"

A fixture for over 170 years, a stalwart of Erie Blvd...this building was saved from demolition by the Junior League and restored and turned into a learning opportunity.

A bit of history about this building:
https://eriecanalmuseum.org/about/1850-syracuse-weighlock-building/?fbclid=IwAR2Od2ayO-fPVTKHQzPLkWNI7_WhLpTISXQuFAL0mo3XrzvpP_oQRTwpp6s

Thankfully it was saved and restored 

so that today we can appreciate this critical piece for the canal. 

For without it, the debt of building it would have been hard to fairly repay

And now it is a museum, full of canal history,

 with a full size canal boat replica 

to get a taste of life on the canal

Stop in and check it out!

https://eriecanalmuseum.org/

And so we have paid our tolls, and continue on the canal westward...so much to see in this big bustling city. Some orders to drop off, some orders to pick up, so we can't rest here...we must press on toward our next stop...