Gateway         to the West                                                                                                                   What           is the Erie Canal?            The Erie Canal is           a 363-mile waterway in New York connecting the Great Lakes to the           Atlantic seaboard, from the Hudson River at Albany to Lake Erie at           Buffalo ( see map ). Initiated in           1817 for $7M (nearly $200M today), the canal was America’s first           major infrastructure project and revolutionized trade and commerce in           the United States.            The project relied           on self-taught amateurs —including           teachers, judges, and surveyors. The workers, nearly 50,000, dug the           entire canal with hand tools, picks, and gunpowder (dynamite had not           yet been invented). The original Erie Canal had 83 locks, each           designed to be...
 
 
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