Potential Problems.

In April 1817 the New York legislature authorized funding for the construction of a 364-mile canal to link Albany on the Hudson River with Buffalo on Lake Erie. Skeptics claimed the project would end up as nothing more than an expensive failure, good only to line the pockets of politicians and bankrupt the state. The critics had some telling points, for the biggest canal built to date in the United States was only 27 miles long, and only 100 miles of canals existed in the entire country. In 1817 none of these projects could claim much of a profit, and President James Madison's recent veto of the Bonus Bill quashed any hope that federal help might be forthcoming for New York's internal improvement schemes. Moreover, although the proposed Erie Canal would be the longest modern canal in the world by far, its construction supervisors were...