Jess Hawley was a flour merchant in Geneva, New York. He couldn’t make any money because it costs a lot of money to transport flour by wagons. Hawley studied the maps of New York and came up with a route to connect western New York and the Hudson River. His ideas were published in the Genesee Messenger in 1807 and 1808. De Witt Clinton, a New York politician, thought it was a good idea.
De Witt Clinton
De Witt Clinton
De Witt Clinton became the canal commissioner of New York in 1810. He asked the state legislature to authorize $7 million to build the canal in 1817. The canal was finished in 1825. Clinton and other distinguished citizens boarded a canal boat named Seneca Chief and went from Buffalo to New York City. On November 4, 1825, (nine days later) the Seneca Chief reached New York Harbor. Clinton poured the water he collected from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean called the "marriage of waters". It symbolized the joining of the Atlantic and Lake Erie by the Erie Canal.
The Construction
Map of the Erie Canal
The Erie Canal was one of the most difficult engineering challenges of its time. No one had ever built a canal more than thirty miles long before 1817. The Erie Canal was 363 miles long from Albany to Buffalo with 83 locks. Men who designed this canal had to be trained engineers. Benjamin Wright was the chief engineer. The engineers have to clear the land, build locks for boats to move through different water levels, build the towpath for mules and make bridges. A ton of flour transported from Buffalo to Albany would cost $100 by land; but only $10 by canal. The Erie Canal soon made New York City the largest and wealthiest city in the nation.