SOURCE: [The Erie Canal Organization, 2008]
Lasting Impact
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"The canal became one of the wonders of the world."
-Peter L. Bernstein, Wedding of the Waters
"New York really became the Empire State because of the canal." "It made New York City the wealth center of the country... This is one of the reasons New York is the country's financial capital and not Philadelphia or Boston." |
The Erie Canal led to the existence of many important New York cities. The canal increased industrialization in New York City, causing it to become a commercial center, prompting a large population growth.
"It sparked the creation of canal systems across the eastern United States, and Canada as well." The Erie Canal also benefitted other states across the nation, contributing to the Market Revolution. These areas progressed in both production and population. The canal caused the midwest to surpass the mid-Atlantic states as the nation's breadbasket.
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"Social reform movements like abolitionism and women's suffrage, Utopian communities, and various religious movements thrived in the canal corridor." “The growth of commerce provided women with opportunities to work outside the home. No accident that the first Women's Rights Convention in human history took place in 1848 at Seneca Falls, NY, along the Erie Canal.” |
"Nothing like this, even close to this, had been done before." The Erie Canal opened new markets and set a precedent for industrialization, influencing the development of faster transportation.
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“It’s not just about New York State, this was a canal for a nation. The story of Chicago, of Detroit, of Cleveland, is the same as Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester. It’s a multi-faceted jewel. You can approach it from different aspects. The engineering, the history, the economics, the geology and geography, why did it take the route it took. So there are many stories to tell. It’s not all about ‘was’, it’s about ‘is’, and it’s about ‘will be’.”
-Tom Grasso, President, Canal Society of New York State
The canal shaped today's America demographically, economically, technologically, and ideologically.