Big Apple History . Building the Big Apple . The Erie Canal


	Canal workers

At the dawn of the 19th century, New York businessmen were getting anxious. New York was losing out to other port cities as a center for trade. New York offered no easy way -- besides a long, hard, overland trip -- to ship goods between the city and the Midwest, where a growing population wanted to trade.

In 1810, Mayor De Witt Clinton proposed a dramatic solution. He suggested digging a canal between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes. Clinton asked President Madison for financial aid but was rejected. Determined, he persuaded New York State to fund the project, even though some politicians nicknamed it "Clinton's ditch."

Construction began in 1817 and was finished in 1825. The canal was an amazing 363 miles long, but only 40 feet wide and four feet deep. That may sound shallow, but it was deep enough for its flat-bottomed boats. The canal also had 83 stone locks to help raise and lower boats across steep inclines.

In 1825, when the canal was completed, Clinton traveled on the first boat from Buffalo, at the Lake Erie end, to Albany, then on down to Manhattan. When he got there, the city celebrated.

Top illustration: 1832 painting by John W. Hill, courtesy of the Collection of the New-York Historical Society.