Moving people and goods from\u00a0the Hudson River area to the Great Lakes region by stagecoach or cart was a tedious and costly process. Shipping time between New York and Buffalo had previously been three weeks, but canal packet boats made the journey in just eight days. Meanwhile, the cost of shipping a ton of cargo between the two\u00a0dropped\u00a0from $100 to only $10.\u00a0This allowed businesses of all types to sell their goods in areas they never dreamed possible.<\/p>\n
Read more: 5 Unexpected Cars That Former Presidents Used To Own<\/a><\/p>\n From the Six Nations Indians to Jesse Hawley Erie Canal at the Salt Block in Syracuse, New York about 1911. Post Card from Onondaga County Public Library collection Rochester News Co., Rochester, NY. – Rochester News Co.\/Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n The Erie Canal was only the latest and most technologically advanced version\u00a0of a route that had long existed.\u00a0The Hudson, Mohawk, and Oswego rivers, along with Wood Creek and Oneida Lake, were part of an ancient series of natural waterways used by the Six Nations Indians, including\u00a0the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy\u00a0for centuries.<\/p>\n In 1792, the “Inland Lock and Navigation Company”\u00a0was formed to improve some of these natural waterways in upstate New York, and work lasted for several years. In 1807, a flour merchant named\u00a0Jesse Hawley started writing essays from debtor’s prison under\u00a0the pseudonym “Hercules.”\u00a0Hawley had been forced into bankruptcy because he couldn’t easily move his flour to a place where it could be sold. His essays, outlining the benefits of creating a man-made canal in the region, were published in the Genesee Messenger and are considered the earliest plans for what would become the Erie Canal (which is vastly different from the Welland Canal)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hawley’s essays were read by DeWitt Clinton —\u00a0a state legislator, U.S. senator, and mayor of New York City\u00a0— who became the canal’s most ardent supporter. In 1808, Clinton was a member of the commission that oversaw the first surveys to lay out a plausible route for the canal. In 1816, he won preliminary approval for the canal and was appointed commissioner of the project. He was elected as New York’s governor the following year and finally convinced the state legislature to authorize the $7 million loan to begin construction.<\/p>\n Governor Clinton’s ditch was a smashing successs DeWitt Clinton mingling the waters of Lake Erie with the Atlantic. – From The New York Public Library<\/p>\n Clinton\u00a0broke ground at Rome, New York (considered the middle segment) on July 4, 1817. Construction on what was ridiculed\u00a0and called by some “Clinton’s Big Ditch” was divided into small sections and subcontracted to multiple contractors, each responsible for supplying their own equipment and work crews.\u00a0In 1818, the labor force was 3,000 men,\u00a0but by 1821, had grown to 9,000. Wages amounted to 50 cents a day ($12 a month), and only sometimes included food and boarding.<\/p>\n It took eight years using horses, picks, shovels, and other hand tools because\u00a0neither dynamite nor the steam shovel had been invented yet.\u00a0Engineer Canvass White created hydraulic cement that hardened underwater, reducing the time and cost of importing European cement.\u00a0The first stretch from Utica to Salina (94 miles) opened in 1820. Another 250-mile section from Brockport to Albany\u00a0and the Champlain Canal (from Lake Champlain to the Hudson)\u00a0was opened in 1823.<\/p>\n Its completion was celebrated on October 26, 1825, a full two years ahead of schedule.\u00a0After making the\u00a0eight-day journey from Buffalo to New York City aboard\u00a0the packet boat “Seneca Chief,”\u00a0Clinton\u00a0ceremoniously poured water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean as a “marriage of the waters.” In 1829, 3,640 bushels of wheat were being transported along the canal. By 1837, a staggering 500,000 were being moved, and by 1841, the number doubled to one million bushels. Within nine years, the cost of the canal’s construction had been repaid through the collection of tolls.<\/p>\n Want the latest in tech and auto trends? Subscribe to our free newsletter<\/a> for the latest headlines, expert guides, and how-to tips, one email at a time. You can also add us as a preferred search source<\/a> on Google.<\/p>\n![\"Erie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/a05228577b0603c731767616e5b1b615.jpeg\"\/)
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