Canals were integral to the early settlement of the Ohio frontier. Built in the eighteen thirties, the Miami Erie Canal connected Cincinnati with Toledo over a distance of 250 miles. During the canal era, from 1825 to 1850, it helped bring the first major boom in Ohio's agricultural, industrial, and urban development. The construction of 813 miles of canal was a herculean task, financed by wealthy New Englanders and excavated by immigrants of German and Irish origin. After completion, stubby horse-drawn barges traveled at 3 miles an hour and made the trip from Cincinnati to Toledo in three days. Although canals were instrumental in Ohio's early cultural development, the faster and more efficient steam locomotive quickly brought about their demise. Many sections of Ohio's canals have been destroyed, but the remaining sections remain important landscape features worthy of preservation because they offer prime wildlife habitat and add cultural history to Ohio's diverse landscape.