be a great gain to the State seems to be admitted by nearly everybody,
and the measure met with but little opposition except from the railroad
corporations and their supporters.

At as early a date as the close of the Revolutionary War, Mr. Morris had
suggested the union of the great lakes with the Hudson River, and in
1812 he again advocated it. De Witt Clinton, of New York, one of the
most, valuable men of his day, took up the idea, and brought the leading
men of his State to lend him their support in pushing it. To dig a
canal all the way from Albany to Lake Erie was a pretty formidable
undertaking; the State of New York accordingly invited the Federal
government to assist in the enterprise.

The canal was as desirable on national grounds as on any other, but the
proposition met with a rebuff, and the Empire State then resolved to
build the canal herself. Surveyors were sent out to locate a line for
it, and on July 4, 1817, ground was broken for the canal by De Witt
Clinton, who was then Governor of the State.

The main line, from Albany, on the Hudson, to Buffalo, on Lake Erie,
measures 363 miles in length, and cost $7,143,789. The Champlain,
Oswego, Chemung, Cayuga, and Crooked Lake canals, and some others, join
the main line, and, including these branch lines, it measures 543 miles
in length, and cost upward of $11,500,000. This canal was originally 40
feet in breadth at the water line, 28 feet at the bottom, and 4 feet in
depth. Its dimensions proved too small for the extensive trade which it
had to support, and the depth of water was increased to 7 feet, and the
extreme breadth of the canal to 60 feet. There are 84 locks on the main
line. These locks, originally 90 feet in length and 15 in breadth, and
with an average lift of 8 feet 2 inches, have since been much enlarged.