The Erie Canal is famous in song, story and American history. Proposed as early as 1768, and often sarcastically referred to as New York Governor Dewitt Clinton's “Big Ditch", canal construction broke ground July 4, 1817. The problem was that the land rises about 600 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie in the West. Locks at the time could handle up to 12 feet so at least 50 locks would be required along the 360 miles of canal. Such a canal would cost a fortune today. But in 1800 the expense was barely imaginable, with even forward thinking President Jefferson calling the canal "a little short of madness" and refusing to consider funding the project. As an engineering marvel when it was built, some have called it the Eighth Wonder of the World. The sides of the cut were lined with stone set in clay, the bottom was also lined with clay and required hundreds of German masons to complete the stonework. It was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard and the western interior (Great Lakes) of the United States that did not require portage, and cut transport costs by about 95%. The canal fostered a population surge in western New York state, opened regions further west to settlement, and helped New York City become the most important port in the United States.
When finally completed on October 26, 1825, it included 18 aqueducts to carry the canal over ravines and rivers, 83 locks, with a rise of 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. It was 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, and floated boats carrying 30 tons of freight. A ten foot wide towpath was built along the bank of the canal for horses, mules, and oxen led by a boy boat driver known as a hoggee (pronounced HO-gee).
Ten years after its opening, the Erie Enlargement Project was begun in response to the immediate overcrowding of the original canal. By expanding the canal to 70 feet wide and 7 feet deep, it could handle boats carrying 240 tons. At this time the number of locks was reduced 72.
In 1903, the state of New York once again decided to enlarge the canal by the construction of what was termed the "Barge Canal Construction Project”. The new canal system would consist of the Erie Canal and the three chief branches of the State system: the Champlain, the Oswego, and the Cayuga/Seneca Canals. The resulting canal system was completed in 1918.
Today the canal system is 12 to 14 feet deep, 120 to 200 feet wide, 363 miles long from Albany to Buffalo, with 57 locks built to handle barges carrying up to 3,000 tons of cargo and with lifts of 6 to 40 feet. Commercial barge traffic has all but disappeared within the New York Canal System since the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway. Recreational boating and tourism is the main traffic on the canal today with great emphasis being placed on the history and heritage of this great waterway. 
In Waterford where the Canal officially begins is the most interesting and creative map of the Canal system. A to scale representation has been made within the sidewalk bricks illustrating the towns and locks along the Canal route.
Etched into the concrete leading to the orginal towpath are a set of mule and young hoggee's footprints.
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