Erie Canal, an important canal in the state of New York. It leads from Buffalo on Lake Erie, through the Mohawk Valley, to the Hudson River at Albany. The Erie was constructed at state expense in 1817-26, largely through the determined efforts of Governor DeWitt Clinton and his political friends. The length of the canal is 387 miles. It is 70 feet wide at the bottom and is 7 feet deep. Buffalo is 568 feet above Albany. There are 72 locks. There is a lift at West Troy of 188 feet and another at Lockport of 54 feet. Stone aqueducts carry the canal across the Mohawk twice. The original depth was four feet. The original cost was $7,602,000. Subsequent deepening and widening and other improvements have brought the total cost up to $52,540,-800. Some scandalous contracts swelled the latter figures. The Erie Canal preceded railroads. A line of light packet boats drawn by horses at a round trot reduced the passenger schedule between Buffalo and Albany from the ten days required by stage service to three days and a half. The rate on freight drawn by long lines of teams was cut from $100 to $10, and later to $3 a ton. The canal did much to fill the valley of the Mohawk with settlers. It opened the way for emigrants bound westward and it formed a great highway for freight from the Northwest to the seaboard. The canal gave New York City an advantage over other Atlantic cities and did much to make it the metropolis of North America. The management of the canal has been a bone of contention from the first. Of late years it is believed that adverse railroad interests have sought to impair the usefulness of the canal. A project is on foot to convert the Erie into a ship canal capable of bearing tugs and barges. Such an enlargement cannot be made for less than $100,000,000.