George Washington advocated connecting the Maumee, Miami, and Wabash rivers for economical transportation as early as 1773, and Captain John Riley surveyed the route in 1820. After further surveys, the Ohio legislature in 1825 authorized commissioners to begin the Miami-Maumee Route. Work started on June 21, 1825, at the Miami River and was completed as far north as Dayton by 1829. By 1845 the canal, now known as the Miami & Erie Canal, was open. It extended from the Miami River to Lake Erie at Toledo, then from Toledo westward to Fort Wayne and Lafayette, Indiana. Commerce flourished along the canal until the 1850's, when competition from the railroads emerged. Packet passenger boats were discontinued in 1862, and by 1870 the Wabash & Erie Canal into Indiana was completely abandoned. The Miami & Erie lingered on until major repairs were authorized and completed between 1906 and 1909, only to be all but destroyed by the floods of 1913. The floods caused heavy damage in Defiance, and by 1917 most of the bridges across the canal in downtown were removed. The canal was gradually filled and drained, and the remains of the north end of Maumee & Erie Lock No. 37 lay exposed until partial renovation in 1997. The double-gate canal lock, a prototype invented around 1400 A.D., served as an elevator to raise or lower a boat from one level to another. In a typical gravity-fed downstream passage, both gates were first closed, water was let into the lock through a small wicket in the upstream gate until the water level matched the upstream level, the upstream gate was opened and the boat was towed in by mule or horse, the upstream gate was closed, water was released through a wicket in the downstream gate until the lock matched the downstream level, and the downstream gate was opened so the boat could be towed out to continue its journey. Towed by horse or mule teams, passenger packets traveled about six miles an hour. A trip from Defiance to Cincinnati took six days and five nights and cost a little more than $7.00, with meals included, and the cost per mile was seven cents. The main cabin served as a passenger dining room by day and a dormitory by night. Horse and mule teams were changed about every fifteen miles, usually at way stations, though they were sometimes stabled on deck and carried along on the journey. Barges and freighters carried between fifty and eighty tons of cargo, including wheat, coal, flour, ice, livestock, and many other goods, while budget travelers often booked passage on a freighter at a lower rate than the passenger packets. Work boats traveled between way stations to perform maintenance along the canal, and commercial canal boats were generally about 14 feet wide by 75 feet long, the maximum size that would safely fit into the locks and still pass under bridges ten feet above the water level.