In 1809, representatives from the state of New York traveled to the nation's capital to meet with President Thomas Jefferson. They wanted money for a 363-mile canal that would link Lake Erie with the Hudson River, thereby opening up New York City to a funnel of commerce from the developing American West. In an age before bulldozers and chainsaws, building an artificial waterway through untamed wilderness, mountains and rocky cliffs was audacious.
Jefferson had come to office promising federal spending on infrastructure, so canal supporters had a reason to believe he would pony up. He did not. He declared that the proposal for the Erie Canal was a "little short of madness."
But did that stop New York from building it? No! New York decided to go it solo. The state issued bonds and had private investors lend it money for the canal. And in only eight years — with zero financial support from the federal government — New York finished the canal with uproarious celebrations. In October 1825, Dewitt Clinton, the New York governor who had fought for the canal as naysayers called it "Clinton's ditch," boarded a boat at Lake Erie with two kegs of lake water. And 10 days later, he poured the water into the Atlantic Ocean after reaching New York City.
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