1. The Erie Canal opened the Midwest to settlement.
Prior to the construction of the Erie Canal, most of the United States population remained pinned between the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Appalachian Mountains to the west. By providing a direct water route to the Midwest, the canal triggered large-scale emigration to the sparsely populated frontiers of western New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois.
2. It sharpened the divide between the North and South over slavery.
Before the opening of the Erie Canal, New Orleans had been the only port city with an all-water route to the interior of the United States, and the few settlers in the Midwest had arrived mostly from the South. 鈥淪outherners had been moving up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers into southern Ohio and southern Indiana, which did become sympathetic to slavery,鈥 according to Jack Kelly, author of the new 鈥淗eaven鈥檚 Ditch: God, Gold and Murder on the Erie Canal.鈥
The Erie Canal checked that trend as the new settlers from New England, New York and Europe brought their abolitionist views with them to the newly established Midwest states. 鈥淭he New Englanders and Europeans beginning to stream across the canal were opposed to slavery, and it set up this confrontation,鈥 Kelly says. 鈥淪outherners became more hardened and Northerners more adamant.鈥 Kelly adds that the transformation of the Midwest into America鈥檚 breadbasket by the new settlers also 鈥渞educed the dependence of the industrial North on the agriculturally dominant South.鈥
3. The Erie Canal transformed New York City into America鈥檚 commercial capital.
Believing the Erie Canal to be a pork-barrel project that would only benefit upstate towns, many of New York City鈥檚 political leaders tried to block its construction. Good thing for them that they failed. 鈥淭he Erie Canal really made New York City,鈥 Kelly says. Prior to the canal鈥檚 construction, ports such as New Orleans, Philadelphia and even Baltimore outranked New York. 鈥淭he success of a port depends on how big a region it can draw from inland,鈥 Kelly says. 鈥淚t gave New York City access to this huge area of the Midwest, and that was an enormous factor in establishing New York City as a premier port in the country.鈥
As the gateway to the Midwest, New York City became America鈥檚 commercial capital and the primary port of entry for European immigrants. The city鈥檚 population quadrupled between 1820 and 1850, and the financing of the canal鈥檚 construction also allowed New York to surpass Philadelphia as the country鈥檚 preeminent banking center.
4. It gave birth to the Mormon Church.
The Erie Canal brought not only rapid change, but anxiety, to towns along its path. Kelly says that apprehension sparked an evangelical religious revival in the 1820s and 1830s along the canal route as well as the birth of religions such as Adventism and Mormonism. 鈥淢any people don鈥檛 realize Mormonism started right on the Erie Canal since it鈥檚 so associated with Utah,鈥 Kelly says. It was along the canal route in 1823 that Joseph Smith claimed to have been visited by a Christian angel named Moroni and where in 1830 he published the Book of Mormon and founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Like Smith himself, many of the religion鈥檚 early followers were drawn from the underclass who missed out on the prosperity brought to some by the canal. The new waterway, though, proved to be a 19th-century 鈥渋nformation superhighway鈥 that aided the spread of the new religion.
5. The Erie Canal helped to launch the consumer economy.
In addition to providing an economic boost by allowing the transport of goods at one-tenth the previous cost in less than half the previous time, the Erie Canal led to a transformation of the American economy as a whole. 鈥淢anufactured goods had been pretty much unknown on the frontier until transportation costs became cheaper. Farmers could grow wheat in western New York, sell it and have cash to buy furniture and clothing shipped up the canal that they otherwise would have made at home,鈥 Kelly says. 鈥淭hat was the first inklings of the consumer economy.鈥
6. It led to the advent of the presidential nominating convention.
In 1826, Freemasons in Batavia, New York, were suspected in the kidnapping and likely murder of William Morgan, who had vowed to expose the order鈥檚 secrets in a new book. The failure of any Freemasons to be brought to justice ignited such outrage along the canal route that it led to the creation of America鈥檚 first 鈥渢hird party鈥濃攖he Anti-Masonic Party. As the 1832 presidential election approached, the grassroots movement lacked the elected representatives in Congress and state legislatures that traditionally selected candidates, so it staged a nominating convention instead. The Whigs and Democrats quickly followed suit. 鈥淭he other parties saw this as a great morale booster and publicity, so they staged their own conventions beginning in that same year,鈥 Kelly says. Although the Anti-Masonic Party quickly disappeared, it left behind a considerable political legacy.
7. The Erie Canal boosted the nascent tourism industry.
The Erie Canal is purely a tourist attraction today, but it also attracted vacationers when it opened as well. Thousands of tourists, including Europeans such as Charles Dickens, flowed down the canal on excursions from New York City to Niagara Falls. Instead of staying at inns along the way, sightseers slept on packets boats pulled by mules through the night. 鈥淚t was considered a real novelty to sleep while traveling,鈥 Kelly says.
8. It sparked a boom in canal construction.
Within a decade of the opening of the Erie Canal, tolls paid by barges had paid back the construction debt. The Erie Canal鈥檚 commercial success, coupled with the engineering knowledge gained in its building, led to the construction of other canals across the United States. None, however, could replicate the success of the New York waterway. 鈥淭hey became filled with political pork,鈥 Kelly says. 鈥淧lus, they were expensive to build and maintain and had to be closed in the winter, so the railroad eventually took on a lot of the transportation function of the canals.鈥
