Innovation in History: The Erie Canal & Buffalo's Connection

Paul Wie, Jr. - Grover Cleveland H.S. (BPS #202). 
NYS History Day Entry: April 30, 2010
Innovation In History: The Erie Canal & Buffalo's Connection.
Senior Division: Individual Website

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The Current Commercial Slip at the Erie Canal Western Terminus in Buffalo, NY
 "The completion of the Erie Canal will do more to facilitate the development of the American West than any single act since Jefferson's purchase of the LouisianaTerritory. It will just be a question of time before the territories and states in the American Midwest - Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin - suddenly enjoying enormous population gains, will begin to ship agricultural produce eastward. When that happens, Buffalo will become the great port of trans-shipment. Meanwhile, as hundreds of thousands of people abandon the East Coast for the Midwest, they invariably pass through Buffalo."

Source: Mark Goldman, High Hopes: The Rise and Decline of Buffalo, New York. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany, 1983, p. 57

Erie Canal Photo Gallery with music by Suzanne Vega