Erie Canal Research Paper

The current size, inherent values, and economic status of the United States owes greatly to the paramount figures and events that took place during the Early National Period of the country. However, while there is no doubt that such events- and the figures behind them- were of great importance and have molded the country into the pristine product that it is today, the various construction projects of that time have gone largely unnoticed. Canals, being one of the most prominent advances in transportation, are prime examples of forgotten catalysts of the American nation. The construction of canals- particularly the Erie Canal- during the 19th century played a key role in the geographic, economic, and cultural development of the country by

The river that connected the West with the East allowed the quick and cheap exportation of natural resources from the fertile middle region of the nation to the industrialized East, in which they would be manufactured into finished goods and shipped to other countries. For example, the costs of the shipment of goodsfrom Additionally, the Erie Canal provided a trade route extending to the Atlantic ocean, which allowed the and thus making New York the “Atlantic port of choice” for many merchants. Had the Erie Canal not been constructed, trade today would solely go south down the Mississippi River, through the ports of New

Through the heavy reliance on the delicate commercial system of the transportation of goods and resources eastward, the West and the East inevitably developed a strong bond; “rivalry between [the two regions] was contained and their mutual dependence generated a sense of national unity” (“For Love or Money”). This consequently secured the Midwest’s support for the Union during the Civil War. “Had the Erie Canal not provided an outlet for the agricultural product of the west, the most obvious path to export would have been down the Mississippi to New Orleans” ( ). The inexorable formation of a commercial alliance would have been established, and the lines dividing the two sides of the Civil War would have been redrawn. If this were the case, the South could have very well won the war, and the United States would not be at the size or state that it currently is. To sum it up, the Erie Canal tremendously impacted the fate of the American nation by unintentionally forming a substantial commercial and political bond between the West and the