The Erie Canal

The
Erie
Canal
    [pic]

Raymond Ly
Class E81
10/25/09
    The Erie Canal was built for numerous reasons. The Erie Canal was built as a transportation system which linked New York City and the
Great Lakes and stretched about 363 miles. It was used to
transport products from one location to another. The Erie Canal was also built because of the rough conditions on the road that were encountered during transportation before it was built. Mainly, the Erie Canal was built for a greater means of transportation.
                      The canal transportation worked by the use of boats which could carry up to 30 tons of freight and as years progressed; the canal boats could carry more tons of     freight. The boats sometimes needed to use locks that   raised or lowered boats 60 feet. For example, if a boat
needed to elevate, it would enter the lock and water would rise 12 feet and the boat would go forward and this keeps happening until it reaches the top.
The construction of the Erie Canal was made possible by Dewitt Clinton. He was the governor at the time and convinced the legislature to spend the necessary amount of money needed for the construction. Immigrants were the people who built the canal. The working conditions of the immigrants were at best boring and at worst lethal. For example, during July, mosquitoes caused the disease, Malaria, to the workers which caused many deaths.
    During the construction of the canal, they used a stump removal machine. They had to use this type of technology because there was stumps underground of where the canal had to be built. They used the machine to take the stumps out of the ground to facilitate the construction of the canal. When the construction of the canal had   finally finished in 1825, Dewitt
Clinton sailed on a boat on the
canal from Buffalo to New York
City for ten days and poured water into the Atlantic Ocean which was called the “Wedding of the Waters”.
    The Erie Canal augmented the... [continues]

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