The original Clinton's Ditch Erie Canal had 83 locks. The Enlarged Erie Canal, built between 1835 and 1862, saw this number reduced to 72 locks. Today, there are 35 numbered locks -- although Lock No. 1 is usually called the Federal Lock -- plus the Federal Black Rock Lock.
http://eriecanal.org/locks.html
Between 1903 and 1918, the State again enlarged the canal by the construction of what was termed the Barge Canal, these locks of today are 328 feet long and 45 feet wide, with a depth of 12 feet of water over the mitre-sills, and can accomodate vessels 300 feet long and 43.5 feet wide.
http://eriecanal.org/locks.html
In 1816, as a sitting Canal Commissioner, DeWitt Clinton submitted a formal petition to a joint committee of the New York State Senate and Assembly to create a canal system between the Hudson River and Lake Erie.
http://www.canals.ny.gov/history/history.html
Hawley’s essays caught the eye of Assemblyman Joshua Forman, who submitted the first State legislation related to the Erie Canal in 1808, calling for a series of surveys to be made examining the practicality of a water route between Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
http://www.canals.ny.gov/history/history.html
On April 15th, 1817, the New York State Legislature finally approved construction of the Erie Canal, which Jesse Hawley had written so compellingly about just a decade earlier. The bill authorized $7 million for construction of the 363-mile long waterway, which was to be 40 feet wide and four feet deep.
http://www.canals.ny.gov/history/history.html
Nearly 80% of upstate New York's population lives within 25 miles of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal's success was part of a Canal-building boom in New York in the 1820s. Between 1823 and 1828, several lateral Canals opened including the Champlain, the Oswego and the Cayuga-Seneca. Between 1835 and the turn of the century, this network of Canals was enlarged twice to accommodate heavier traffic.
http://www.canals.ny.gov/history/history.html
The present Erie Canal rises 566 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie through 35 locks. From tide-water level at Troy, the Erie Canal rises through a series of locks in the Mohawk Valley to an elevation of 420 feet above sea-level at the summit level at Rome.
http://eriecanal.org/locks.html
A+E Networks. The Erie Canal opens, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River. Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York, the driving force behind the project, led the opening ceremonies and rode the canal boat Seneca Chief from Buffalo to New York City.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/erie-canal-opens
The original Erie Canal locks were 90 feet long and 15 feet wide, and were designed for a canal boat 61 feet long and 7 feet wide, with a 3 1/2 foot draft.
http://eriecanal.org/locks.html
Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was one of the most extraordinary engineering feats of the 19th century, connecting eastern ports and manufacturing with the rest of the country. New to Old.
http://www.history.com/topics/us-states/new-york/videos/building-the-erie-canal
when was the erie canal made
The Erie Canal was made in 1825.