Erie Canal & Schoen Place, Big Shot 24

Erie Canal & Schoen Place
Pittsford New York

May 8, 2008 • 8:50pm
52 degrees Fahrenheit

Direct Digital Capture: Camera – Nikon D3 with 40 mm lens
Exposure time: 30 seconds @ f16 ISO 200

All external lighting was provided by multiple hand-held electronic flash units and flashlights operated by approximately 615 people.

Produced by:

– Students, Faculty, Staff & Friends of the RIT School of Photographic Arts and Sciences

– Nikon, Inc.

– Village of Pittsford

– Schoen Place, LLC

– Cornhill Navigation

About the 2008 Subject:

The Erie Canal was originally proposed as an idea in 1808 and was completed in 1825. It links the waters of Lake Erie at the western side of NY state to the Hudson River in the east. An engineering marvel when it was built, some called it the Eighth Wonder of the World. On July 4, 1817, Governor Dewitt Clinton broke ground for the construction of the canal. In those early days, it was often sarcastically referred to as “Clinton’s Big Ditch”. When finally completed on October 26, 1825, it was the engineering marvel of its day. It included 18 aqueducts to carry the canal over ravines and rivers, and 83 locks, with a rise of 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. It was 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, and floated boats carrying 30 tons of freight. A ten foot wide towpath was built along the bank of the canal for horses, mules, and oxen led by a boy boat driver or “hoggee.”