Good News In History, October 26
Good News In History, October 26 200 years ago today, the Erie Canal opened a passageway from New York to the Great Lakes. The canal was built to create a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Midwestern US and took 8 years to construct the 36 locks which overcame a total elevation differential of about 565 feet (172 m). At a time when there were only pack animals and no steamships or railways, water became a cost-effective shipping method that changed the Great Lakes Region. READ more… (1825) When built, the 363-mile (584 km) canal was the second-longest in the world after the Grand Canal in China. The Erie’s peak year was 1855, when 33,000 commercial shipments took place. It continued to be competitive with railroads until about 1902, when tolls were abolished. Commercial traffic declined heavily in the latter half of the 20th century due to competition from trucking via the newly developed Interstate Highway System and the 1959 opening of the larger St. Lawrence Seaway.…
