Duplicating their European roots, early settlers realized the need for inland waterways, not only for travel but also trade. As the new nation of America advanced westward from the Atlantic, so did the need to exchange goods with other towns and regions. Connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson River, the 1817 construction of the Erie Canal shattered previous methods of trade by cutting costs almost 95%. Soon the trade industry became quicker, cheaper and more accessible to the masses along the 363-mile canal that dissected the state. Due to the canal’s access to western lakes, New York City rapidly became the epicenter of international commerce, a designation it still assumes today. With an elevation variance of over 560 feet, the Erie Canal consisted of 36 locks across the state. Stretching from Albany in the east to Buffalo in the west, it unified not only New York but also the Eastern seaboard to the Midwest. The national economic impact by this new waterway was enormous. Eastern factories could now ship goods westward and, concurrently, Midwest farmers found a new and abundant market in burgeoning urban populations along the Atlantic. The Erie Canal literally was a nineteenth century internet. Everything was accessible cheaper and faster than ever before.
Replaced by the expensive and larger New York State Barge Canal in 1918, the fabled Erie Canal was soon supplanted. Fighting a losing battle with the emerging railway and highway innovations of the early 1900s, the later-named New York State Canal System was eventually abandoned as a viable commercial corridor. The past quarter century has seen the Erie Canal as mainly a recreational option for local communities. In the mid-2000s, in the midst of a recession with high diesel prices for semi-trucks and trains, the canal’s commercial appeal spiked peaking at 42 commercial freights in 2008. In its glory days, the Erie Canal ushered up to 33,000 cargo shipments a year.