The Wabash & Erie Canal fulfilled George Washington's dream of connecting the St. Lawrence Seaway with the Gulf of Mexico by creating a waterway across the only land barrier between the St. Marys River in Fort Wayne and the Wabash River. Ground was broken for the project on February 22, 1832, on the summit level of the canal in Fort Wayne. It took until 1853 to complete the canal, which operated until 1876, when the railroads forced its closing. When completed, the canal stretched 468 miles from Toledo, Ohio, on Lake Erie, to Evansville, Indiana, on the Ohio River, and was the longest canal in the Western Hemisphere.