ERIE CANAL

historic waterway of the United States, connecting the Great Lakes with New York City via the Hudson River. By the beginning of the 19th century the desirability of a transportation link between the Atlantic coast and the trans-Allegheny region was evident. Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York saw the potential in the proposal for a canal from Buffalo, on the eastern shore of Lake Erie, to Albany, on the upper Hudson, passing through the gap in the mountains in the Mohawk Valley region. In 1817 he induced the state legislature to authorize the expenditure of $7 million for construction of a canal 363 miles (584 km) long, 40 feet (12 metres) wide, and 4 feet (1.2 metres) deep. To cross the 500-foot (150-metre) rise in elevation west of Troy, the work required 83 locks. No roads existed for supply; horse and human power alone were available. Streams were crossed via aqueducts; in several places rock was blasted with black-powder charges. Despite all difficulties, the canal was opened on October 25, 1825, by the canal boat Seneca Chief. The effect of the canal on the growth of the upper Midwest was rivaled only by its effect on the growth of New York City. Settlers poured west (many using the canal) into Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, places from which they could ship farm produce via the Erie Canal to be marketed in the East; in return, barge loads of manufactured goods and supplies went west. Freight rates from Buffalo to New York City, which had been $100 a ton by land, were only $10 a ton by the canal. In nine years the tolls exceeded the cost of construction, and by 1882, when the tolls were abolished, the canal had paid for the cost of several feeder canals and contributed to the general revenue of the state. Enlarged to 70 feet (21 metres) in width and 7 feet (2.1 metres) in depth, the Erie Canal successfully resisted competition from the railroads and, despite suffering a period of neglect late in the 19th century, was the central artery in the 20th-century development of New York canals that connected Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario, and the Finger Lakes. Completed in 1918, this waterway was called the New York State Barge Canal (later the New York State Canal System). The modern canal, though used largely for pleasure boating, is capable of accommodating barges of up to about 2,000 tons.