During the 19^th century, North America was undergoing a canal fever, an affliction that had affected the British in the previous century. This is mainly due to the invention of the canal lock that allowed boats to be lowered and raised to different levels, which allowed for greater ease and bigger volume of travel. The canal boom hit North America later than Europe due to the sparser distribution of population and lack of established companies to undergo such extensive projects.

                By the early 1800s, these difficulties had been sufficiently overcome.[1]  In 1823, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company was incorporated in the state of New York by William and Maurice Wurts, brother merchants from Philadelphia who wanted to reach the rich market of New York City. Construction on the canal began not long after in July 1825.[2] The canal officially opened for business in late 1828, allowing for both freight and passenger traffic. Originally, the canal was not very large and could not accommodate larger boats.

In the early 1840s, the Delaware and Hudson Canal had become such a popular waterway that it was decided it needed to be enlarged. During the rest of the decade, the canal was periodically expanded.[3] The Delaware and Hudson Canal operated until 1898, at which time the Gravity Railroad had took over the canal’s traffic.[4]

                On February 1st 1849, Isaac T. Hopper wrote that William Carrigan had visited that day. Carrigan had previously been employed in an unspecified position on the Delaware and Hudson canal, but was now seeking work in New York City because "the water had been let out of the Canal". This probably refers to the construction occurring during this period to enlarge and deepen the Canal.

[1] Sally M. Schultz and Joan Hollister, "The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company: Forming, Financing, and Reporting on an Early 19th Century Corporation," The Accounting Historians Journal 41, no. 2 (December 2014): 112, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43487012.

[2] Leon Sciaky, "The Rondout and Its Canal," New York History 22, no. 3 (July 1941): 275 - 277, JSTOR.

[3] Jim Shaughnessy, Delaware & Hudson: The History of an Important Railroad Whose Antecedent Was a Canal Network to Transport Coal, 2nd ed. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 5 – 9.

[4] Sally M. Schultz and Joan Hollister, "The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company: Forming, Financing, and Reporting on an Early 19th Century Corporation," The Accounting Historians Journal 41, no. 2 (December 2014): 113, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43487012.