The canal was a water-way that stretched across the State of New York from Buffalo to Albany and there joined the Hudson River, which leads straight to the city of New York, and so on to the ocean.

The people in the city and in the State were delighted at the completion of the work, and on the day of the opening of the canal they expressed their joy as loudly as they could.  Governor De Witt Clinton was at the Buffalo end, and he, with the State officers, started in a boat decorated with flags and bunting and was towed through the canal.  As the boat set out from Buffalo, a cannon was fired, and many more cannon having been placed each within hearing distance of the other by the side of the canal, in turn took up the sound and carried it along, mile after mile, until the last one, stationed in the city of New York, was fired, one hour and twenty-five minutes after the first had been fired at Buffalo.  By this the people all across the State knew that the canal had been opened.

For ten days the boats crept along the canal, and at each town bands played, and speeches were made, until on the tenth day the Governor and his party reached New York—­the first to make the journey across the State by water.  They were taken to Sandy Hook, the Mayor of New York, with many others, attending, and surrounded by all the ships in the bay, with their colors flying and their whistles blowing.  And there at Sandy Hook, Governor Clinton poured a keg of water which he had brought from Lake Erie into the waters of the ocean.

Thus were the waters of the Great Lakes and the waters of the Atlantic Ocean united, and the city was illuminated as it had never been before, and great bonfires burned all night, in honor of the wedding.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

The building of the Croton aqueduct

It really seemed now as though some fairy wand had been turned toward New York.  Blocks of houses of brick and stone sprang up, and buildings of every sort crept up the Island of Manhattan and were occupied by more than 200,000 people.  The city was the centre of art and literature and science in America.  The streets were lighted by gas; there were fine theatres; and the first street railroad in the world was in operation—­the first step toward crowding out the lumbering stages.  Newspapers were multiplying, and there were now fifty various sorts, daily, weekly, and monthly.  The dailies cost six cents, and were delivered to regular subscribers.  In the year 1833 the Sun, the first penny paper to be published in the city, was issued.  It was a success.  Boys sold it on the streets in all parts of the town.  This was the beginning of the work of the news-boys, and after this they were to be found all over the country.