The Importance Of The Erie Canal In New York

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The Erie Canal is a canal in New York that runs 363 miles long from Albany to the Hudson RIver. It was built to give a water way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. They started building the canal on July 4,1817 and it was first used on May 17,1821. The canal is now today 12 to 14 feet deep and 120 to 250 feet wide.In 1825 a grand celebration was held and the newly completed canal opened. It allowed boats that were up to 7 feet wide, 61 feet long and 3.5 feet of draft. The canal was an immediate success and quickly traffic jams were created. In 1832 an enlargement begin that reconstructed the locks to a larger size of 110 feet long by 18 feet wide. By 1816 only about 100 miles of canals had been reduced the cost of moving goods between