A. The Erie Canal helped New York City establish its trade position and develop into the world's dominant commercial center. Some caution attributing New York's success and development to the construction of the canal, while others argue that it "played a most important role in the commercial development of the State of New York and probably more than any other influence contributed to the establishment of New York City as the chief port of entry of the United States. B. Western New York grew exponentially due to the canal, which "spurred economic diversification" and attracted new business and industry. Proximity to the canal reduced costs and manufacturing in the western part of the state increased by 262% between 1820 and 1840. As towns emerged along the Erie Canal, they brought business, agriculture and industry to the previously unsettled western New York region. Rochester, which had built its first frame house only five years before canal construction began, established itself as the Flour City and developed an industrial center. Buffalo, previously a small trading post, became a western boomtown, attracting a branch of the United States National Bank and becoming the final stop for individuals immigrating to the Old Northwest as a part of the Big Push. C. The Old Northwest had been cleared for settlement by the War of 1812 when American victory on the Great Lakes gave the nation control of an unparalleled system of waterways, commercial access to the west and "undisputed access to the Northwest Territory." As there was previously no easy way to get across the Allegheny Mountains, the Northwest Territory had remained relatively unsettled prior to the construction of the Erie Canal. The population of Ohio doubled five years after the canal was opened to Buffalo; Northern Indiana, once a "bleak wilderness" became the most important part of the state; and Michigan saw an influx of northeasterners to Detroit, 15,000 from New York and New England settling there in 1830. 2. Travel between New York and Lake Erie prior to the canal required a combination of land and water transport and took about 50 days, costing approximately $150. In 1849, the "up canal" traffic (to the west) brought 315,550 tons of freight, mostly finished merchandise, valued at nearly $70 million. In 1852, freight destined for tidewater weighed in at 2 ½ million tons, worth over $74 million. Up canal shipping saw 560,764 tons of freight worth $114,090,801. In 1852, the canal brought the Albany Basin more than 20 million tons of property valued at more than $27 million. 3. It can also be argued that the canal played an important role in the Civil War, and as one historian contends "it requires no fanciful imagination to conceive that the opening of the Erie Canal was an agency which did more than almost another to curb the power of slavery." The trade outlet to the east enabled the Old Northwest to avoid being used as a pawn in the Civil War, while the military and political support of Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana proved vital to Union victory. 4. Jesse Hawley wrote, with no small sense of pride and perhaps a touch of bias, that "no single act-no public measure-except the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the U.S. Constitution, has done so much to promote public prosperity and produce a new era in the history of the country, as the construction of the Erie Canal." A bold statement, indeed, but one that finds support in the ledgers, maps, newspapers, and documents that convey our national history. Although it is a bit of an exaggeration, one cannot overlook the vital impact of the Erie Canal on the younger United States of America. The documents referenced were pivotal in establishing the political aspects of the nation, so regarding the Erie Canal as the basis of the economic aspects is certainly reasonable because it helped establish American trade legitimately and allowed the nation to prosper.