The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was perhaps the most significant engineering feat of the 19th century. Linking the Hudson River and New York City to Lake Erie and the interior of the fledgling United States of America, it quickly became the principal immigration route west. Used by hundreds of canal boats, the canal's economic success resulted in New York City becoming the nation's commercial center and New York becoming the Empire State. At this site are the original "Clinton's Ditch," the Reconstructed Erie Canal from the 1850s, and the Barge Canal of 1917.