Two hundred years ago, the Erie Canal was finally completed, and to celebrate the achievement, the Governor of New York and other local elected officials engaged in a progressive celebration.
They sailed from Lake Erie to New York Harbor with stops at communities along the way. It was like a 10-day tailgate with parties, speeches and all-day public celebrations, and it culminated in a ceremonial “wedding of the waters” when water from Lake Erie was poured into New York Harbor.
The completion of the canal was hardly inevitable. While not the first, it was certainly one of the major regional economic development activities undertaken by any government in America, and while there were some supporters for the project, their numbers were initially small…