The Erie Canalway History and Culture
Adapted from The National Parks Service

### A Waterway to the Interior

The New York State Canal System is the most commercially enduring and historically significant canal way in the United States. This waterway played a key role in turning New York City into our country's most important center for commerce, industry, and finance. Besides spurring growth in the Mohawk and Hudson valleys, these canals helped open up western America for settlement. For many years, the canals transported much of the Midwest's agricultural and industrial products to domestic and international markets.

### The Canal's Beginning

In the early 19th century, New York State Governor De Witt Clinton had a vision of constructing a canal crossing New York and connecting Albany and Buffalo. Some people were critical of Clinton's idea. They labeled the project "Clinton's Ditch." Even so, Governor Clinton was not discouraged. The result was a 364-mile-long water route connecting the Hudson River (at Albany) with the Great Lakes (at Buffalo). This was the first all-water link between the Atlantic seaboard and the Great Lakes.

Begun in 1817, the canal actually had its roots in an earlier time period, nearly 50 years prior. American General Philip Schuyler had pioneered the idea of canals in northern New York. Schuyler was an enduring figure from the American Revolutionary War. He died in 1804 and did not see his dreams for a New York canal become a reality. His plans and drawings, however, went into the design and creation of a successful canal system.

When it opened in 1825, the Erie Canal almost immediately revolutionized trade, commerce, and transportation. The uncomfortable two-week wagon or stagecoach trip from Albany to Buffalo became possible in merely five days. This was less than half the time the journey usually took. Freight rates fell to just 10 percent of their previous cost. The result was increasing profit margins for merchants.

The Erie Canalway quickly became a "must do" trip.