ERIE CANAL, at its' origin, Lock Number 2, a tourist destination in Waterford, New York. - stock photo

Vertical photo of falling water in LOCK NUMBER 2, the beginning of the ERIE CANAL, in Waterford, New York, a tourist destination. The Erie Canal is in New York State Canal System, built between 1817 and 1825. It ran 363 miles from where Albany meets the Hudson River to where Buffalo meets Lake Erie. Project was started by Governor Dewitt Clinton to create a water route from New York City to across the mid-west. Thousands dug the canal and thousands operated boats on the canal that transported goods between Buffalo and New York City. It grew the economy of the northern states into the mid-west in America in the 1800's. New York City, because of the canal, became a new hub of exports to Europe, rather than New Orleans. It also contributed to the abolitionist movements and women's rights movements because literature could be transported by barge on the canals to out west.