The Erie Canal Opened 26 October 1825

I hate missing important anniversaries. 200 Years Ago, the Erie Canal Opened and America Was Never the Same

The Erie Canal not only transformed America, but, by allowing for the export of massive amounts of Midwestern farm products to Europe, American farmers drove a large number of small farmers in Europe out of business. Many of them made their way to America.

It is an interesting article, and not too long. You might learn something.

It was built without support from the US government, mostly by people who didn't have engineering degrees. It was an incredible success.

In two decades, more freight was moving down the Erie Canal than was being floated down the Mississippi River from the Midwest to New Orleans. It would be an exaggeration to say that the Erie Canal created modern America, but it's hard to imagine America today without it.

It even had impacts on Europe, through the amount of agricultural products we could export.

Historian Daniel Walker Howe wrote in his book, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, “The small capitalist farmers of North America hacked away at the economic base of the ruling landed classes in Europe more destructively than all the revolutionaries on the continent.”

(Hat tip to Instapundit.)