A man-made waterway, spanning valleys and rivers, channeling through hills of solid rock or climbing over them, flowing across marshes and thickly wooded forests, all the way across New York State - the Erie Canal seemed to be a preposterous idea. Even President Thomas Jefferson, usually ahead of his time, believed that such a canal could not be realistically considered for at least a century. And yet the Erie Canal was built, just as its planners dreamed it would be; and it worked, just as its inexperienced builders believed it would.

For the first time in the history of the United States, a cheap and fast route ran through the Appalachians, the mountain chain that had so effectively divided the West from the East of early America. With this breach, the fertile interior became accessible: The great inland lakes of America were linked to all the seas of the world.

Here is the canal's dramatic and little-told story.