Erie Canal

Erie Canal
Current Route of the Erie Canal
Specifications
Length	524 miles (843 km)
Locks	36
Maximum height above sea level	571 ft (174 m)
Status	open
Navigation authority	New York State Canal Corporation
History
Original owner	New York State
Principal engineer	Benjamin Wright
Other engineer(s)	Canvass White, Amos Eaton
Construction began	July 4, 1817 (at Rome, New York)
Date of first use	May 17, 1821
Date completed	October 26, 1825
Date restored	September 3, 1999
Geography
Start point	Hudson River near Albany, New York (42°47′00″N 73°40′36″W / 42.7834°N 73.6767°W / 42.7834; -73.6767)
End point	Niagara River near Buffalo, New York (43°01′25″N 78°53′24″W / 43.0237°N 78.8901°W / 43.0237; -78.8901)
Branch(es)	Oswego Canal, Cayuga–Seneca Canal
Branch of	New York State Canal System
Connects to	Champlain Canal, Welland Canal

The Erie Canal is a canal in New York that is part of the east–west, cross-state route of the New York State Canal System (formerly known as the New York State Barge Canal). Originally, it ran about 363 miles (584 km) from Albany, on the Hudson River, to Buffalo, at Lake Erie. It was built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.

New York legislators became interested in the possibility of building a canal across New York in the first decade of the 19th century. Shipping goods west from Albany was a costly and tedious affair; there was no railroad yet, and to cover the distance from Buffalo to New York City by stagecoach took two weeks.

First proposed in the 1780s, then re-proposed in 1807, a survey was authorized, funded, and executed in 1808. Proponents of the project gradually wore down opponents; its construction began in 1817. The canal has 36 locks and an 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 railways, water was the most cost-effective way to ship bulk goods.

The canal, denigrated by its political opponents as Clinton's Folly or Clinton's Big Ditch, 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.

From the days of the birchbark canoe, the early trade routes of the Northeast utilized New York’s waterways. The Lake Champlain–Hudson River Route and the Lake Ontario–Oswego River–Mohawk River Route were utilized by native Americans, fur traders, missionaries and colonizers. Fortification along these routes still stands as testimony to their importance in exploration, trade and settlement.