Transportation of Food: Ships: Canal Boats

The English settled the eastern seaboard, which had few navigable rivers that could help farmers bring produce to markets in coastal cities. The Hudson River was an important exception; it was navigable from its mouth at New York City to up past Albany. In 1817 New York began construction of the Erie Canal, which went westward from Albany to Lake Erie, with an extension to Lake Ontario. The Erie Canal, the largest public works project in North America up to that time, was economically successful even before it was completed in 1825. The canal made it economically viable to grow grain in western New York, and then in the Midwest, and send it through the canal to New York City. Because crop yields were higher in the new agricultural areas and transportation expenses were low, the grain-growing areas of the nation shifted from the east coast to the Midwest.