The Erie Canal opened in 1825 and connected the Hudson River with Lake Erie.
The canal ran from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie. Construction began in 1817 under New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, and the completed waterway opened on October 26, 1825. Its route crossed the Appalachian barrier through a system of locks and artificial waterways.
The Erie Canal sharply reduced the cost and time of moving people and goods between the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes. New York City gained a major commercial advantage because the canal linked its harbor to the interior. Towns such as Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo grew rapidly along or near the route.
The project was sometimes mocked as “Clinton's Big Ditch,” because many observers doubted that such a long canal could be built. Its success encouraged other canal and transportation projects. The canal was later enlarged and modernized, but its historic route remains one of the defining infrastructure achievements of the early United States.