American History25 Feb 2011 09:00 am
The Erie Canal, a waterway in New York State, is one of humankind’s most extensive and influential undertakings in water transportation. Its technological achievements are many. For one, the Erie Canal was undertaken at a time when the next-longest man-made waterway in the US was just 27 miles long. Eventually, however, the original vision of making 363 miles navigable was accomplished. Today, the Canal’s combination of locks, aqueducts, and gorges helps ships to travel 524 miles and rise and descend an astonishing 680 feet between Albany and Buffalo. Although it sees far fewer shipments than it did before the advent of trucking, the Erie Canal is now experiencing an upswing in traffic in response to rising diesel costs: after all, a barge on the Erie Canal can transport a short ton 514 miles with just one gallon of diesel – and that’s almost ten times more efficient than a truck. However, a number of sections along the original route have been converted into historic parks. Park examples include Old Erie Canal State Historic Park, Camillus Erie Canal Park, and the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site. The old and new canal routes can also be observed from more than 300 bridges.
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