Completed in 1825, the westernmost leg of the Erie Canal paralleled the Niagara River between Tonawanda and Buffalo, running about ten miles through the mostly unsettled Township of Tonawanda past Black Rock to Buffalo before this section was abandoned in 1918. The canal's immense success over its 363-mile route from Albany to Buffalo helped make Buffalo one of the largest cities in the United States by the end of the 19th century. For many travelers, Tonawanda and Buffalo were only waypoints, as the canal became a major factor in opening the West during the mid-19th century, carrying immigrants, land-seekers, and commercial interests into the Ohio Valley, across the Great Plains, and ultimately to the Pacific; according to Niles' Register of Baltimore, in one week 3000 persons passed westward on the Erie Canal to settle in the wilderness.