Low Bridge, Everybody Down

At Mystic Seaport, it wouldn’t be unusual for a sea chantey to stick in your mind. But ever since I found out that a new exhibit, Building America’s Canals, is opening at the Museum January 30th, I can’t get a certain folk song out of my head.

You may know it as “Erie Canal.” Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and others have recorded versions of the original 1905 song, written by Thomas S. Allen, who titled it “Low Bridge, Everybody Down.” I can practically guarantee that once you hear this song, you too will be quietly humming, whistling or singing it. (Google: <Bruce Springsteen Erie Canal song> for a listen.)

More than a century ago, thousands of miles of canals were built to bring goods from the hinterland to coastal ports. During this rather short-lived era, canal locks and masonry arches, pulleys, cranes and acqueducts, as well as the humble mule, played an integral role in what was then deemed a maritime transportation revolution. The men, women and children who lived and worked along a canal route were called “canalers.”

Here comes the fun part. The Museum’s Building America’s Canals exhibit is a hands-on opportunity for visitors of all ages to role-play as a “canaler.”  Want to be  a canal engineer, a  lock tender, a canalboat captain or maybe a crane operator? You can do it! The 1,600-foot exhibit has a bench for each activity you choose. For computer  buffs, there’s also a computer game in which you build and operate a lock, virtual dynamite included to blast the route your canal will take!

Although railroads gradually replaced the necessity and importance of most of these waterways, the nostalgia for the canal era lingers on in folk songs like “Erie Canal.” I’ll leave you with the first verse:

I’ve got a mule and her name is Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
She’s a good old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal

 I can hear you singing it now!                                              

Blog written by Trudi Busey.                                               

Building America’s Canals, an exhibit organized by the National Canal Museum, will be open in the Mallory Building at Mystic Seaport January 30 – October 11, 2010.

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