Construction of the Erie Canal began near Rome on July 4, 1817, amid ridicule from skeptics who called it "Clinton's Folly" and "Clinton's Ditch" and derided its principal promoter, but by October 24, 1825, Governor DeWitt Clinton declared it complete and began a grand waterborne procession from Buffalo to New York City. The canal prompted settlement, commercial agriculture, and manufacturing across upstate New Yok and opened vast areas in the middle of the American continent to similar development. As the principal channel for the products of New York and Midwestern farms, forests, and mines, it confirmed New York City's place as America's foremost seaport and commercial center and made New York the Empire State. Providing the first all-water link between the Atlantic Seaboard and the upper Great Lakes, the canal stretched 363 miles, climbed 570 feet from the tidal Hudson River at Albany on its way to Lake Erie in Buffalo, and passed through 83 locks. The Erie and connecting canals were later enlarged to accommodate bigger boats in ever increasing numbers, and the New York State Barge Canal system, constructed between 1905 and 1918, was the last major enlargement and remains in service today.
