Low Bridge!

Those who built and used the Erie Canal were a bizarre society, proud pioneers on the waterway known in song and story as "the Horse Ocean," "the Roaring Giddap," or "the Raging Erie." Their considerable influence on American life and literature is the basis of this book.

Canallers were colorful characters, from the "hoggee" on the towpath to the "shipshape macaroni" with stovepipe hat and badge of service taking command of a packet with the pride of an admiral, even though he was restricted by law to a speed of four miles per hour!

Games and diversions were rough-and-tumble, fighting being as natural as breathing to the canallers. Stories about heroes like Sam Patch and Paddy Ryan, or the big fish that could haul a canal boat, or the big pumpkin that drained the canal--these were logical products of this "frontier" atmosphere. So were the songs--carefree, bawdy, or sad, inspired by the canal and sung throughout the land.

Photographs and drawings, music and words to folk songs, maps, notes, and index are included in this first paperback edition.

Author: Lionel Wyld
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 05/28/1962
Series: New York State
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.7lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780815601371
Paperback Edition