The
Erie Canal is a canal in
New York that originally ran about 363 miles (584 km) from
Albany, on the
Hudson River to
Buffalo, at
Lake Erie.
Built to create a navigable water route from
New York City and the
Atlantic Ocean to the
Great Lakes.
The canal is now part of the
New York State Canal System.
First proposed in 1807, its construction began in 1817. The canal contains 36 locks and a total elevation differential of about 565 feet (172 m). It opened on
October 26, 1825.
In a time when bulk goods were limited to pack animals (an eighth-ton [250 pounds (113 kg)] maximum), and there were no steamships or railways, water was the most cost-effective way to ship bulk goods. The canal was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard (New York City) and the western interior (Great Lakes) of the
United States that did not require portage. It was faster than carts pulled by draft animals, and cut transport costs by about 95%The canal fostered a population surge in western New York and opened regions farther west to settlement. It was enlarged between 1834 and
1862. In
1918, the western part of the canal was enlarged to become part of the
New York State Barge Canal, which ran parallel to the eastern half and extended to the Hudson River.
Today, the Erie Canal is the cross-state east-west route of the New York State Canal System (formerly known as the New York State Barge Canal). In
2000, the
United States Congress designated the
Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor to recognize the national significance of the canal system as the most successful and influential human-built waterway and one of the most important works of civil engineering and construction in
North America. Mainly used by recreational watercraft since the retirement of the last large commercial ship (rather than boat), the
Day Peckinpaugh in
1994, the canal saw a recovery in commercial traffic in 2008
From the first days of the expansion of the
British colonies from the coast of North America into the heartland of the continent, a recurring problem was that of transportation between the coastal ports and the interior.
Close to the seacoast, rivers often provided adequate waterways, but the presence of the
Appalachian Mountains, 400 miles (640 km) inland, presented a great challenge.
Passengers and freight had to travel overland, a journey made more difficult by the rough condition of the roads. In 1800, it typically took 2.5 weeks to travel overland from New York to
Cleveland, Ohio [460 miles (740 km)]; 4 weeks to
Detroit [612 miles (985 km)].
That the principal exportable product of the
Ohio Valley was grain did not help matters, as grain was a high-volume, low-priced commodity bolstered by supplies from the coast, frequently not worth the cost of transporting it to far-away population centers (this was a factor leading to farmers in the west turning their grains into whiskey for easier transport and higher sales, and later the
Whiskey Rebellion)
. In the 18th and early
19th centuries, it became clear to coastal residents that the city or state that succeeded in developing a cheap, reliable route to the
West would enjoy economic success, and that the port at the seaward end of such a route would see business increase greatly
In time, projects were devised in
Virginia,
Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and relatively deep into coastal states.
- published: 20 Oct 2015
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