The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal
The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal tells the story of how De Witt Clinton, a young politician, turned the Erie Canal from a dream into a reality.
When De Witt Clinton first dreamed of building a canal to connect the Hudson River with the Great Lakes, folks didn’t believe he could do such a thing. Clinton wanted to link east coast ports to the frontier, and from the groundbreaking ceremony on the Fourth of July in 1817, Clinton never gave up – even as people called his project “Clinton’s Ditch.”
Eight long years later, he’d realized his vision at last and constructed the longest uninterrupted canal in history – allowing water travel from the American prairie all the way to Europe!
- About the author: Cheryl Harness has created many wonderful picture books about historical subjects, including Three Young Pilgrims, Ghosts of the White House, and Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi. She lives in Independence, Missouri.
