The Erie Canal became America’s most important inland waterway, opening the American frontier, carrying tens of thousands of settlers and immigrants westward, and fostering the growth of villages, towns, and cities along a route that spread commerce from the Hudson Valley to the Midwest. It transformed New York into the Empire State and helped make the nation an economic superpower, while its name remained synonymous with American industry and ingenuity. Put into service in 1825, the canal was enlarged from 1834 to 1862, again in the 1890s, and then underwent its last and largest expansion when it opened as the New York State Barge Canal in 1918. Each stage answered demand for larger barges and bigger cargoes, and self-propelled boats in the 20th century allowed the canal’s path to be altered to use New York’s lakes and rivers. Over a century of evolution, its infrastructure adopted new technologies, shifting from cut stone to poured concrete, from wooden lock gates to giant steel versions, and from hand-operated cranks to electrified push-button controls. Modernized Barge Canal locks, built for steel barges carrying 3,000 tons of cargo, could handle boats with 100 times the capacity of those from the 1820s. By the 1960s, however, the canal could no longer compete with modern transportation and the St. Lawrence Seaway, losing its economic viability as a commercial corridor. Though it is still used commercially, recreation became its primary role, with tour boats, pleasure boats, canoes, and kayaks largely replacing steel-fabricated oil barges. Today, the 524-mile New York State Canal System includes the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca canals, crossing New York’s heartland past farmland, battlefields, canal towns, and wildlife preserves, and offering enjoyment on the waterways, Canalway Trail, and at parks and picnic areas across the system.