The Erie Canal Helped America Grow
May 29, 2012
A tour boat passes Lock 2 on the Erie Canal in Waterford, New York, in 2008.
BOB DOUGHTY: I’m Bob Doughty.
MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. In the early eighteen hundreds, traveling in the United States was dangerous. Business and trading were limited. Then came the waterway called the Erie Canal. It helped build America.
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BOB DOUGHTY: Two adventurers recently traveled the more than five hundred eighty kilometers of America’s Erie Canal in kayaks. Then the two, Richard Harpham of Britain and Glenn Charles of the United States, paddled into the Hudson River to complete their trip to the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
They piloted their light, small boats more than eight hundred kilometers in about twenty-one days. That time also included stops for cultural and historic activities along the way.
The event was called the “The New York State Spare Seat Expedition.” Harpham and Charles invited others to join them for parts of their travels. The “guests” rode in the additional seat in the boats. Many kayaks have a single seat.
MARIO RITTER: The two men call themselves “expeditionary kayakers” – explorers on the water. One goal of their trip was to honor the struggles that built the Erie Canal. It became America’s first national waterway in eighteen twenty five.
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