<P> In a time when bulk goods were limited to pack animals (a 250 pounds (113 kg) maximum), and there were no railways, water was the most cost - effective way to ship bulk goods . </P> <P> The canal was denigrated by its political opponents as "Clinton's Folly" or "Clinton's Big Ditch". It was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard and the western interior of the United States that did not require portage . </P> <P> It was faster than carts pulled by draft animals and cut transport costs by about 95% . The canal gave New York City's port an incomparable advantage over all other U.S. port cities and ushered in the state's 19th century political and cultural ascendancy . The canal fostered a population surge in western New York and opened regions farther west to settlement . It was enlarged between 1834 and 1862 . The canal's peak year was 1855, when 33,000 commercial shipments took place . In 1918, the western part of the canal was enlarged to become part of the New York State Barge Canal, which ran parallel to the eastern half of the Erie Canal, and extended to the Hudson River . </P> <P> In 2000, the United States Congress designated the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor to recognize the national significance of the canal system as the most successful and influential human - built waterway and one of the most important works of civil engineering and construction in North America . The canal has been mainly used by recreational watercraft since the retirement of the last large commercial ship, Day Peckinpaugh, in 1994 . The canal saw a recovery in commercial traffic in 2008 . </P>

What was the significant result of the construction of the erie canal
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