NPR

How The Erie Canal, About To Turn 200, Helped Build The Empire State

Lift Bridge at Adams Basin on the Erie Canal. (Jean Mackay)

July 2017 marks the 200th anniversary of the start of construction on the Erie Canal. It was completed in 1825 and linked Lake Erie in Buffalo with the Hudson River in Albany, making it possible to move materials and goods from the Midwest to New York City.

The canal was a feat of engineering in its day, and it transformed upstate New York and turned New York City into the biggest port in the country and one

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