Economic history of the United States
The 325-mile Erie Canal, which connected Albany, New York, on the Hudson River with Buffalo, New York, on Lake Erie, began operation in 1825. Wagon cost from Buffalo to New York City in 1817 was 19.2 cents per ton-mile. By Erie Canal c. 1857 to 1860 the cost was 0.81 cents. The Erie Canal was a great commercial success and had a large regional economic impact.
Wood Creek
In 1817 New York State chartered the Erie Canal, which would solve the myriad problems of the Albany-Oswego waterway by building a system of unprecedented size and sophistication. In 1820 the works of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company were purchased for the use of the Erie Canal, which bypassed the Wood Creek to Oswego portion of the old waterway in favor of a direct canal from Rome through Syracuse and Rochester to Buffalo, on Lake Erie. The Rome Canal and the waterway running west along Wood Creek to Oneida Lake were abandoned. The century when tiny Wood Creek was a channel for much of the cargo between the inlands of North America and the Atlantic seaboard had ended.