Erie Canal Essay Sample
During the late eighteenth and early 19th centuries. the new state known as the United States of America began to develop programs to better transit into the inside and beyond the great physical barrier of the Appalachian Mountains. A major end was to associate Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes with the Atlantic Coast through a canal. Many studies and proposals were developed to construct a canal but it was finally a study performed in 1816 that established the path of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal would link to the port of New York City by get downing at the Hudson river near Troy. New York. The Hudson River flows into New York Bay and past the west side of Manhattan in New York City. From Troy. the canal would flux to Rome ( New York ) and so through Syracuse and Rochester to Buffalo. located on the nor’-east seashore of Lake Erie.
Once the path and programs for the canal were established. it was clip to obtain financess. The United States Congress easy approved a measure to supply support for what was so known as the Great Western Canal but President James Monroe found the thought unconstitutional and vetoed it. Therefore. the New York State legislative assembly took the affair into its ain custodies and approved province support for the canal in 1816. with tolls to pay back the province exchequer for upon completion.
New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton was a major advocate of a canal and supported attempts for its building. In 1817 he fortunately become governor of the province and was able to therefore supervise facets of the canal building. which subsequently became known as “Clinton’s Ditch” by some.
On July 4. 1817. building of the Erie Canal began in Rome. New York. The first section of the canal would continue east from Rome to the Hudson River. Many canal contractors were merely affluent husbandmans along the canal path. contracted to build their ain bantam part of the canal. Thousands of British. German. and Irish immigrants provided the musculus for the canal. which had to be dug with shovels and Equus caballus power – without the usage of today’s heavy Earth traveling equipment. The 80 cents to one dollar a twenty-four hours that labourers were paid was frequently three times the sum labourers could gain in their place states.
On October 25. 1825. the full length of the Erie Canal was complete. The canal consisted of 85 locks to pull off a 500 pes ( 150 metre ) rise in lift from the Hudson River to Buffalo. The canal was 363 stat mis ( 584 kilometres ) long. 40 pess ( 12m ) broad. and 4 pess deep ( 1. 2m ) . Overhead aqueducts were used to let watercourses to traverse the canal.
The Erie Canal cost $ 7 million dollars to construct but decreased transportation costs significantly. Before the canal. the cost to transport one ton of goods from Buffalo to New York City cost $ 100. After the canal. the same ton could be shipped for a mere $ 10. The easiness of trade prompted migration and the development of farms throughout the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest. Farm fresh green goods could be shipped to the turning metropolitan countries of the E and consumer goods could be shipped west. Before 1825. more than 85 % of the population of New York State lived in rural small towns of less than 3. 000 people. With the gap of the Erie Canal. the urban to rural ratio began to alter dramatically.
Goods and people were transported rapidly along the canal – cargo sped along the canal at about 55 stat mis per 24 hr period but express rider service moved through at 100 stat mis per 24 hr period. so a trip from New York City to Buffalo via the Erie Canal would merely hold taken approximately four yearss.
In 1862. the canal was widened to 70 pess and deepened to 7 pess ( 2. 1m ) . Once the tolls on the canal had paid for its building in 1882. they were eliminated.
After the gap of the canal. extra canals were constructed to link the Erie Canal to Lake Champlain. Lake Ontario. and the Finger Lakes. The Erie Canal and its neighbours became known as the New York State Canal System. Now. the canals are chiefly used for pleasance boating – bike waies. trails. and recreational marinas line the canal today. The development of the railway in the nineteenth century and the car in the twentieth century sealed the destiny of the Erie Canal.
