Why is erie canal so important

It was along the canal route in that Joseph Smith claimed to have been visited by a Christian angel named Moroni and where in he published the Book of Mormon and founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In addition to providing an economic boost by allowing the transport of goods at one-tenth the previous cost in less than half the previous time, the Erie Canal led to a transformation of the American economy as a whole. As the presidential election approached, the grassroots movement lacked the elected representatives in Congress and state legislatures that traditionally selected candidates, so it staged a nominating convention instead.

The Whigs and Democrats quickly followed suit. Although the Anti-Masonic Party quickly disappeared, it left behind a considerable political legacy. The Erie Canal is purely a tourist attraction today, but it also attracted vacationers when it opened as well.

It opened in Source: Unknown. In its early days, the canal was not very large see below , but it was large enough to move Michigan's grain and wool east, thereby providing Michigan with a market for it's commodities, which rapidly fueled the influx of settlers.

The boats used on the Canal were generally flat-bottomed, and usually hauled grains, wool, whiskey, and sometimes meat. Land Transportation For the improvement of land transportation within the territory, Michigan relied heavily on the federal government. In troops of the Detroit garrison began building a road to the rapids of the Maumee River, near the present city of Toledo. By it was "cut through" and bridges over rivers and marshes had been built, but the road was still poorly located and almost impassable for wagons.

A road across the Black Swamp from the settled part of Ohio to the Maumee Rapids was completed the same year. Thus, by land transportation to Detroit from the south had been greatly improved.

Roads from Detroit into the interior were required, however, before any large-scale settlement of Michigan territory was possible. In the territorial government launched a project to build a road northward from Detroit, but the road was inadequate and by had reached only as far as Pontiac.

A post road from Pontiac through Flint to Saginaw was laid out in Intervening swamps made progress difficult. The first road westward also was a military road, designed to connect Detroit with Fort Dearborn.

It ran westward from Detroit to Ypsilanti, then veered to the southwest, and continued through the southernmost tier of Michigan counties. The eastern portions of this road were in use by the latter s, and by two stagecoaches a week operated between Detroit and Fort Dearborn.

This highway, known then as the Chicago Road, became "practically an extension of the Erie Canal and Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Following the failure of a French construction team in the s, the United States commenced building a canal across a mile stretch of the Panama isthmus in The project was helped by the elimination of disease-carrying mosquitoes, while chief engineer John Stevens It enables a more direct route for shipping between Europe and Asia, effectively allowing for passage from the North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean without having to The Erie Canal opened the Midwest to settlement.

Prior to the construction of the Erie Canal, most of the United States population remained pinned between the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Appalachian Mountains to the west. By providing a direct water route to the From the time it was founded as a small settlement in the late 18th century, Los Angeles depended on its own river for water, building a system of reservoirs and open ditches as well as canals to irrigate nearby fields.

As the city grew, however, it became clear that this supply Waring Jr. In a quest to fulfill a centuries-old dream to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the builders of the Panama Canal quickly learned that the construction of a waterway across a narrow ribbon of land looked easier on a map than in reality. The Panamanian isthmus proved to be In the early 20th century, the U.

Bureau of Reclamation devised plans for a massive dam on the Arizona-Nevada border to tame the Colorado River and provide water and hydroelectric power for the developing Southwest.

Construction within the strict timeframe proved an immense The idea for a canal across Panama dates back to the 16th century. Today, De Witt Clinton and the story of the Erie Canal are inextricably linked, and there is no doubt that Governor Clinton grasped at the time the revolutionary impact the Canal would have once it opened:. Ultimately, over one hundred thousand New Yorkers would sign the petition, helping to build a ground swell of public support for the project.

On April 15th, , the New York State Legislature finally approved construction of the Erie Canal, which Jesse Hawley had written so compellingly about just a decade earlier. Construction would begin on July 4th, in Rome, NY and would take eight years.

The completion of the Erie Canal spurred the first great westward movement of American settlers, gave access to the rich land and resources west of the Appalachians and made New York the preeminent commercial city in the United States.

After traveling from the mouth of the Erie to New York City, he emptied two casks of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean, celebrating the first connection of waters from East to West in the ceremonial "Wedding of the Waters". The effect of the Canal was both immediate and dramatic, and settlers poured west. In , there were 3, bushels of wheat transported down the Canal from Buffalo.

By this figure had increased to , bushels; four years later it reached one million. In nine years, Canal tolls more than recouped the entire cost of construction. Within 15 years of the Canal's opening, New York was the busiest port in America, moving tonnages greater than Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans combined. The impact on the rest of the State can be seen by looking at a modern map.