Transportation
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On the morning of October 26, 1825, Governor DeWitt Clinton officially opened the canal after more than eight years of work and 363 miles of construction. He boarded the packet boat Seneca Chief for the symbolic first voyage to New York City, accompanied by two wooden kegs filled with Lake Erie water and other symbolic Great Lakes cargo, while a procession of canal boats followed in celebration. As the boats passed across New York State, citizens greeted them with parades, music, and cannon blasts. The canal opened trade from the Great Lakes to the Eastern Seaboard and Europe, carrying the promise of commerce and progress. On November 4, the boats reached Albany, and steamboats then escorted the Seneca Chief down the Hudson River to New York City Harbor, where Clinton poured Lake Erie water into the Atlantic, joining the Great Lakes to the ocean. After further festivities, the Seneca Chief returned to Buffalo on November 23 carrying Atlantic water in a keg marked "Neptune's Return to Pan," and two days later Judge Samuel Wilkeson poured the ocean water into Buffalo's harbor, completing the Wedding of the Waters.
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Buffalo, New York · United States
