The 363 mile Erie Canal was completed after 8 years in 1825. Considering that it’s getting close to 200 years old, we marveled at the significant accomplishment it was for that time as well as its impact on our history, opening up trade and settlement in the Midwest. For all you history buffs out there, at the time of it’s completion it was hailed as the greatest engineering marvel in the world. It reduced the cost of shipping goods to the “frontier” of that time by 90% and made New York City the busiest seaport in America.
We took a boat trip which included travel through the locks in Lockport, NY. This area was the most difficult stretch of the Erie Canal to build through solid rock cliff with an elevation gain of 60 feet just in this one section. It was fascinating to experience “locking up” and “locking down” for the first time. We also enjoyed riding bikes along a portion of the 363 mile trail that was once the tow paths for the mules pulling the boats along the canal (prior to the invention of steam engines).
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