The Erie Canal

The Erie Canal originally stretched 363 miles, measuring 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep. Built largely by farmers and finished by immigrants, it was completed without a single trained engineer or any mechanized equipment. Since 1825, it cut travel time from Albany to Buffalo from a bumpy two-week trip to just five days, and reduced freight shipping costs by more than 90 percent, from roughly $100 a ton to less than $6 a ton. Construction of the original canal cost $7.1 million, and the laborers who built it earned between 80 cents and one dollar a day.

Root, New York · United States