The Erie Canal

 Nov 4

 "The Erie Canal was completed on this date in 1825. An engineering marvel that was once called the Eighth Wonder of the World, it connects Lake Erie to the Hudson River. Construction on the canal began in 1817; it runs 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo, and traverses rivers, valleys, forests, and marshes. It was the first route from the eastern coastal ports to the Great Lakes that didn't require portage, it was significantly faster than overland routes, and it cut transportation costs by about 90 percent. It was designed for barge traffic, and was originally 40 feet wide and four feet deep. Expansion began 10 years after the canal opened, and it was enlarged to 70 feet wide and seven feet deep. It contains 36 locks, which manage an elevation change of almost 600 feet.

The canal was first proposed in 1807; it was the idea of Jesse Hawley, an entrepreneur who dreamed of an easier, cheaper way to get grain from the west to the Eastern Seaboard. Shipping costs had bankrupted him, and he had plenty of time to brainstorm while he was sitting in a debtors' prison. He envisioned a canal running along the Mohawk Valley, and got New York governor DeWitt Clinton on board. The state legislature finally approved the $7 million appropriation in 1817. They recouped the cost of construction — and then some — within nine years, through canal tolls."

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