Document 1:
Shipping costs from Lake Erie to Manhattan plummeted from a hundred dollars a ton to under
nine dollars. A few more years of this brought the annual value of freight transported along the
canal up to fifteen million dollars, double that reaching New Orleans via the Mississippi; by
mid-century the figure would approach two hundred million. Enough money would be collected in
tolls-nearly half a million dollars the first year alone-to repay the cost of construction and help
subsidize an additional six hundred miles of canals in the state over the next fifteen years.
plummeted: went down rapidly
subsidize: pay part of

1. What impact did the Erie Canal have on shipping costs?
The Erie Canal had an
impact on shipping costs because.....