Effects of the Erie Canal

- The Erie Canal was considered an engineering marvel when it first opened in 1825.
- The Erie Canal provided a direct water route from New York City to the Midwest, triggering large-scale commercial and agricultural development as well as immigration to the sparsely populated frontiers of western New York, Ohio, -- Indiana, Michigan and points farther west.
-The canal transformed New York City into the young nation’s economic powerhouse.
-In 2000 the U.S. Congress designated the Erie Canal a National Heritage Corridor.
-The project provided practical schooling for a new generation of American engineers and builders, and led to the founding of the nation’s first civil engineering school, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, in 1824.
-Erie Canal engineers devised new equipment to uproot trees and stumps and invented the first cement that could set and harden underwater.
-The Erie Canal also provided an economic boost to the entire United States by allowing the transport of goods at one-tenth the previous cost in less than half the previous time. - By 1853, the Erie Canal carried 62 percent of all U.S. trade.

A picture that accurately represents how boats were moved across the Erie Canal [Getty Images]

The Erie Canal in Buffalo, New York. [Getty Images]