It turned New York Harbor into the nation's number one port. It shaped social and economic development. Cities and industries developed along the canal and flourished. T he Erie Canal was the superhighway of pre-Civil War America. It still connects the Great Lakes and inland waterways to the Hudson River and on to the Atlantic.
Barges make up little of the traffic.
Instead, pleasure craft of every size, dinner cruises, and even intrepid canoeists keep the canal and its locks busy. T he Erie Canal Museum is located in the1850 Weighlock Building, a National Register Landmark. The building, the only remaining structure of its kind in the world, was designed to weigh canal boats and collect tolls at the confluence of the Erie and Oswego canals. The museum is open year round at 318 Erie Blvd. Syracuse's Clinton Square at the turn of the century.