America in the early 1800s was still very young and travel by land was slow and difficult. Before there were any railroads, advanced highway systems, or motor cars, the only way to move large numbers of people or goods from the West to East was by horse-and-carriage or water. Ships leaving New York Harbor could sail across the Atlantic Ocean to reach Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America but they could not sail from New York City to the country’s interior. It was actually cheaper to ship goods all the way to England than it was to ship goods just 30 miles inland, within the same country.

"Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the lack of an efficient safe transportation network kept populations and trade, largely confined to coastal areas." (www.canals.ny.gov). At the time, there were no natural waterways connecting the city to the Great Lakes and the lands further west, because the Appalachian Mountains acted as a geographical barrier, and our technology simply was not developed enough yet. America was desperate to find a transportation route linking the cities of the east coast and the expanding Midwest, where many settlers traveled to in search of land, opportunity and wealth.

In 1805, a bankrupt flour merchant named Jesse Hawley wrote detailed articles from his prison cell to persuade the government to invest in digging a manmade canal. Hawley estimated that a canal connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie would cost about $6 million. Many people, including Former President Thomas Jefferson, called Hawley's idea "madness," but DeWitt Clinton, the popular mayor of New York City, was impressed and intrigued.

In 1810, Clinton was appointed to the Board of Canal Commissioners by the state legislature to survey the canal route proposed by Hawley. The Board traveled throughout the Appalachian Mountains and wrote detailed notes about the geography and wildlife they encountered. They concluded the canal would be possible, but it would be both expensive and challenging.

It wasn't until 1815, when the War of 1812 against Great Britain finally ended, that DeWitt was able to publicly seek support for the canal. There were many skeptics, but, many New Yorkers thought a canal would make shipping goods across the nation faster and cheaper.

DeWitt Clinton believed the canal was crucial to the economic growth of his city, but the federal government refused to loan him the money. Realizing that he didn't have the power he needed as mayor, Clinton decided to run for governor of New York, and won by a landslide! Voting for him meant voting for the Erie Canal. On July 4, 1817, just three days after DeWitt Clinton took office, America's greatest construction project began!

The Erie Canal was finished on October 26, 1825, two years ahead of schedule. In a grand ceremony, Dewitt Clinton and other dignitaries boarded the Seneca Chief in Buffalo and traveled the length of the canal. When the journey ended in New York City, Clinton emptied a keg of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean, calling it the “marriage of the waters.” Cannons placed every ten miles along the route fired to signal the opening of the canal, taking 80-minutes to traverse the route from Albany to New York City. Needless to say, those who opposed this ambitious undertaking were happy to delight in the nation's success.

Built between 1817 and 1825, the Erie Canal spanned 363 miles from Albany to the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, it was the longest artificial waterway in the world, and the biggest public works project in North America.

The Erie Canal cost the state of New York more than $7 million to build, but it immediately brought immense economic gains and stimulated continued development in cities along its entire route.

The opening of the Erie Canal led to many new exciting firsts for our new nation, and all along the canal, people established new businesses, communities, and livelihoods. The Erie Canal transformed New York into The Empire State -- the world's leader in industry and economic strength, as well as a place of cultural diversity and modern ideas!

The Erie canal was an instant commercial and financial success. The canal fostered a population surge throughout western New York -- sparking further industrial development and opening regions farther west to settlement.

As businesses along the canal route boomed and commercial demands grew, the canal was no longer big enough. Between 1834 and 1862, the canal was enlarged to accommodate larger boats and more traffic. During this time, leaks were sealed using waterproof cement, locks were widened, new aqueducts were constructed, and some of the original routes were straightened or re-routed.

The canal continued to flourish and bring revenue (money) into New York State. In 1903, to meet further freight demands and transportation traffic, the New York State legislature authorized construction of the New York State Barge Canal. Investing more money into the canal system meant that newer technologies could be used to enlarge the existing canal and build additional waterways to spread the wealth to other cities, but it also meant that the less profitable sections of the canal would be abandoned.

As faster and more affordable transportation routes became available -- railroads and highways, and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway (1959) -- commercial traffic on the Canal System dramatically declined. These new modes of transportation made shipping goods even faster and cheaper but the canal was never entirely forgotten.

In 2000, the U.S. Congress recognized the Erie Canal’s significance to our nation by establishing the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. The Corridor stretches 524 miles across the full expanse of upstate New York, from Buffalo to Albany and north along the Champlain Canal to Whitehall. It weaves together 234 diverse communities, connected by a waterway that changed not just the landscape of our state, but also our nation and its history. (www.nps.gov)