Canals look vaguely like rivers

Do boat trips start with a security check now?

October 26 is notable for several things, but in the US in the early 1800s the most notable might have been the completion of the Erie Canal in 1821. It was a very big deal back in the day; a 363-mile-long waterway connecting the Hudson River to the Great Lakes meant that you could actually ship reasonably large quantities of whatever goods you had with…