The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs 363 miles from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, to Lake Erie, completing a route d navigable water from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks which allow a boat to move from one water level to another lower level by raising the water level in a section which allows the boat to move from one lock to the next. In this way, the Erie Canal transforms a once inaccessible waterway into a common means of transportation for both goods and people. Traveling by land and water was both tedious and expensive. Transporting a ton of goods interstate would cost about $100, or $1,265 in today's money. In 1790, land routes connecting the East Coast and the far western regions of the United States were undeveloped. Furthermore, when weather conditions were adverse, land routes could not support any type of reliable wagon transportation, or even travel on horseback. Natural waterways provided the most reliable method of transportation west of Albany. Traveling by water during this period was also inconvenient because these waterways were unreliable due to shallow water and rushing rapids. In the early days of American westward expansion, traveling from the coast of North America to the heart of the continent was certainly a recurring problem. DeWitt Clinton, who was mayor of New York and then governor of New York State, had the vision and drive to build the first 363-mile-long Erie Canal. In this way DeWitt believed that America would control westward expansion. It was feared that if the United States did not have a good connection to the west, Canada might connect to the west and even further halfway along the canal today. The development of the railroad in the 19th century and the automobile in the 20th century sealed the fate of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal created what was the first reliable transportation system, connecting the eastern seaboard (New York) and the western interior (Great Lakes) of the United States that did not require overland travel. In addition to making water routes faster than land travel, it also reduced travel costs by 95%. The canal began a population increase in western New York and opened regions farther west to settlement. This marked the beginning of New York City's transformation into the major port of the United States. Works Cited http://www.nycanals.com/Cayuga-Seneca_Canal http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Erie_Canalhttp://www.canals. ny.gov/cculture/history/http://www.history.com/topics/erie-canal