1. Erie Canal

2. Facts • Opened-Oct. 25, 1825 • Cost-About 7 million • Endpoints –Buffalo and Albany N. Y. • Length 363 miles • Width – 40 feet • Towpath – 14 ft’ • Total depth – 4 ft • Total no. of locks – 83 • Total number of aqueducts- 18 • Nicknames • Clinton’s Folly • Clinton’s big Ditch • About 600 ft high

3. Profits • Profits from canal paid for the cost of the project within nine years of the canal’s opening • Canal soon made N. Y. the busiest port on the United States • Trade through N. Y. Harbor boomed to take items to overseas markets.

4. Costs • Cost of shipping in 1824 = $100 per ton by road. • Cost of shipping in 1825 = $10.00 per ton by canal. • Populations = increased in Buffalo, Albany, Chicago and Cleveland

5. More On Erie Canal • When work began on Canal there was not a single school of Engineering in U. S. • Many of the locks still used today. Lock sizes have been changed to accommodate larger vessels. • People use the towpaths for recreation, walking, bicycling, and cross country skiing • Gov. Clinton was a major supporter and his image was featured on the U. S. $1,000 bill printed between 1860-1880.

6. How many stories of a building would equal the Erie Canal? • Use 10 feet as average height of a one story building. • Canal rises almost 600 Feet • 600/10 =?? • 60 Stories to equal the size of Erie Canal.

7. Project • Make advertisement-Flyer • Opening of the Erie canal • Information about why canal transportation is better than other available options • Consider both people traveling west and those shipping goods • Use book and internet as resources • Use both picture and words • Make it interesting and fact based