Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is the 363-mile waterway across upstate New York, opened on October 26, 1825, that connected the Hudson River at Albany with Lake Erie at Buffalo, linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.
What happened and why it matters
The Erie Canal made New York the leading US port by cutting the cost of moving freight between the Midwest and the East Coast by roughly 90 percent or more. Before the canal, sending a ton of goods from Buffalo to New York City by road cost about $100; by canal it cost about $10, and the trip took roughly half as long. Cheap transport opened Midwestern farms to Eastern and export markets and drew settlers west. The canal is an early proof that freight cost and transit time, not just distance, decide where goods are made, stored, and sold.
People
Related events
Sources
- Erie Canal britannica.com
- Erie Canal opens history.com
- Erie Canal en.wikipedia.org