Erie Canal: The Original Canal - Business in United States of America

Erie Canal: Later Versions

The Erie Canal was 363 miles long, 4 feet deep, and 40 feet wide, and built at a cost of $7.1 million. It had 83 locks, 17 toll booths, 18 aqueducts to carry the canal over ravines and rivers, a rise of 568 feet from Hudson River to Lake Erie, and a 10-foot-wide towpath for horses, mules, and oxen. In October, 1825, Governor Clinton, who had suffered ridicule for what was termed “Clinton’s Big Ditch,” rode the packet boat Seneca Chief on the eight-day trip from Buffalo to New York City and emptied two casks of Lake Erie water into the Atlantic Ocean, celebrating the ceremonial “marriage of the waters” from west to east.

The Erie Canal

The governor was immediately vindicated by an explosion of trade. Freight rates from Buffalo to New York were $10 per ton, compared with $100 per ton by road, and time was cut from twenty to ten days. In 1829, a total of 3,640 bushels of wheat were transported; by 1837, the volume of wheat had increased to 500,000 bushels and by 1841 to one million bushels. In nine years, the canal tolls more than recouped the entire cost of construction. Within fifteen years of the opening of the Erie Canal, New York City had become the busiest port in the United States, moving more tons of freight than Boston, Baltimore, and New Orleans combined. In addition, the New York towns of Albany, Schenectady, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo morphed from small outposts to major industrial cities.

Erie Canal: Later Versions

Canals: Negative Aspects

Canals: Alternative Forms of Transportation

Book publishing: Nineteenth Century

Erie Canal

Colorado River water

Canals

Erie Canal: The Original Canal - Business in United States of America

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