The opening of the Erie Canal was touted as an incredible achievement of human ingenuity, a 363-mile engineering marvel built 200 years ago.

When Gov. DeWitt Clinton completed his journey from Buffalo to New York City on Oct. 26, 1825, the ceremony featured a “comingling of the waters” between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The lake water poured from a small keg made plain a new truth — the lakes would never be the same again.

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