Erie Canal

Settlers shipped goods before the Erie Canal by going behind Russia, meeting their fellow kittens, and buying an airboat from them then riding out into the sunset. Cats.

In order to open the country west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlers and to offer a cheap and safe way to carry produce to a market. The Erie Canal was built as a passageway from the eastern cities through the Appalachian mountains. It was a trade waterway meant to bring resources back from and goods to the frontier.

The canal was important with the western developments and transportation among the vastly growing united states. it was a cheaper, easier way to transport goods down the stream or across the country.

The New York State Legislature voted to fund the Erie Canal because Dewitt Clinton thought that the canal would increase business to New York. The Canal paid for itself in two years.

Because canal boats were shallow-draft, flat-bottomed vessels, the original depth of the Erie Canal was about 4 feet. It was deepened over the years until in the early 20th Century it was dredged to a minimum depth of 12 feet to accommodate traffic which is primarily made up of pleasure boats.

It began in 1817 and was finished in 1825.

Lowell started building mills Lowell, Massachusetts in 1821. The Erie Canal opened October 26, 1825.

The canal connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. This connection made it much easier for ships to make it from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, which made transport and shipping much faster.

Farmers could more easily ship grain to eastern markets. Immigrants could go from New York to Buffalo and from there to anywhere in the Midwest.

It is a waterway in New York State that runs from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.

New York City was connected now to Buffalo.

The Suez Canal, being a sea-level canal does not use locks. The Suez canal did have movable traffic-control bridges that spanned the entrances to control traffic but these were not, strictly speaking locks. It is by far the longest big-ship canal in the Western world- there are some big canals in both Russia and China.

Thee Wabash and Erie Canal was a shipping canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Ohio River via a man-made waterway. The canal provided traders with access from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 460 miles long, it was the longest canal ever built in North America. The Erie Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes.

There were 18 aqueducts on the Erie Canal.

The Erie Canal connected the city of Albany to the city of Buffalo by Lake Erie. People came up the Hudson River from New York to the Canal. The canal used the Mohawk River and other rivers, lakes, and swamps.

Both the Erie Canal and the Transcontinental Railroad made an impact in American history connecting our nation. Both made transportation faster and improved businesses.

Boats could move through it at speeds of up to five miles per hour. Shipping times and costs were greatly decreased. The Governor saw the possibility of New York becoming more important and richer. He was right. The Erie Canal paid for itself in two years.

Shipping prices were cut and towns and cities sprung up along the canal making the area more populated. New York became very prosperous and overtook Philadelphia as the largest port. Immigrants came into New York and moved to the Midwest.

The completion of the Erie Canal allowed ships to travel between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, facilitating transportation and trade between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. This 363-mile waterway, completed in 1825, significantly reduced travel time and shipping costs, promoting economic growth in New York and the Midwest. The canal also played a crucial role in the westward expansion of the United States by making it easier to transport goods and settlers.

William Weston was a civil engineer who trained Benjamin Wright who was the chief engineer of the Erie Canal. He was a was a consultant to the Erie Canal Commissioners. William Weston had built other canals and bridges in both England and the United States.

3 types: passenger & cargo, packet, and freight boats. (derived from The Canal Society of Ohio (http://www.canalsocietyohio.org/)) Packets hauled passengers only.

Small boats and pleasure craft uses the Erie Canal today. It is also a cycling trail and used for fishing. But there still is some commercial traffic.

Because of water's nature to flow downhill and a canal's need to maintain a more or less constant depth, it has to maintain a relatively level course despite crossing land which changes in elevation. Therefore a canal has to "stair-step" its way over variations in terrain through locks which raise and lower boats to the changing levels of the canal's course.

Jesse Hawley had the idea to build the Erie Canal. He went broke with his flour mill in Rochester because he could not get his product to the market fast enough. He wrote to the governor of New York. DeWitt Clinton liked the idea and pushed New York legislators for funding.

On October 26, 1825 the Erie Canal was completed and a big celebration was held in New York state.

The nickname was Clinton's Folly or Clinton's Ditch because of the governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton.

They didn't have earth moving machines back then. The Erie Canal was dug by hand with some animal help.