The Erie Canal - Research Paper Example

Insert The Erie Canal The building of the Erie Canal, which extends for 363 miles, measuring an estimated 40 feet in breadth and four feet in depth, was raised 573 feet in a chain of 83 curls (Dickinson 32). The canal extends from Albany to Buffalo, is a major development in the United States. Its completion in 1825 after eight years of construction, established a water front that runs from the Atlantic Ocean through the Hudson River to the Great Lakes (Clinton 34). The remarkable growth witnessed in the American mainland is attributed to the project: the Erie Canal connected the Midwest and the East on several respects, including economic and political issues.

It formed the basis of the dominant American philosophies for almost two centuries, and transformed New York into the most significant urban area in the region. Dickinson (34) indicates the project also contributed immensely toward the improvement of American investments, attracting substantial business ventures by foreign firms and businesspersons. Most of the investments were based on infrastructure programs, which would speed up the development of industries in America in the late nineteenth century.

According to Clinton (35-36), the remarkable scientific techniques that were employed in the landmark construction a success in the early nineteenth century. The text offers an account of the immense financial resources that the country amassed and channeled to the project, indicating that the capital investments were very sound. The scale of resources was so much that so high that its proper use would definitely give rise to a substantial project like the Erie Canal. Russell (158) is an important literature that offers vital lessons into the history of America, when few historians, if any, bothered to write about.

The magnanimity of the project, especially in regard to the expansion of American economy, witnessed the opening of the Erie Canal in late 1825 was marked with the firing of guns. Guns set within an interval of 10 miles along the 363-mile canal exploded in celebration. Governor DeWitt Clinton was the key political figure who made the trip along the Canal soon after its completion (Clinton 35). The project changed the economy of the Western New York to the better in the years that followed the 1825.

It triggered the sprouting of numerous towns, without causing the noise pollution, which was the trademark of railway transport. The canal served as an easier transport means for the transient culture of the locals. According to Clinton (34-37) most Americans were content with the project. This was manifest in the paintings done by James Eights, to portray the projects geological survey. The artist made an artist’s impression of the Erie Canal, using several watercolors shortly before the official opening of the project.

Further, some classical art work encompasses Lockport on the Erie Canal, done by Mary Keys, seven years after the completion of the project. Additionally, George Harvey, an artist of British origin, did his Pittsford work on the Erie Canal, in 1837. Conclusion The early nineteenth-century project is a remarkable development in America that contributed the economic expansion of the American infrastructure network. Finding solutions to engineering loopholes demanded exceptional skills, and involved constructing drainage channels, and aqueducts, using construction materials that would resist constant exposure to moisture, clearing virgin lands, and establishment of the large and strong locks.

The completion of the project allowed massive settlement of populations in the Western American region. Works CitedClinton, DeWitt. Life along the Erie Canal. Humanities, 27.2 (2006): 34-37.Dickinson, Rachel. A Hundred Miles on the Erie Canal. Atlantic Monthly, 304.3 (2009): 32-33.Russell Mead, Walter. Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation. Foreign Affairs, 84.2 (2005): 158.