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Let's look at an example of using information from
2 articles to answer a question.
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Question
What effect did the building of the Erie Canal have on the
economic development of New York State?
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Read these 2 articles
on the Erie Canal to get
information to answer the question. |
When Governor DeWitt Clinton first proposed a Canal from the Hudson River
to the Great
Lakes, detractors dismissed the project as "Clinton's folly." The Erie
Canal took seven years
to build and was the engineering marvel of its day -- yet it was
constructed without the aid of a
single professional engineer. It cut through 363 miles of wilderness and
featured 18 aqueducts
and 83 locks, with a rise of 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.
Finished in 1825,
it spurred the first great
westward migration of American settlers, opened the
only trade route west of the Appalachians, and
help make New York the
preeminent
commercial city in the U.S. The Erie Canal was enlarged three
times to accommodate heavy
traffic, most recently between 1905 and 1918 when the present-day Canal
system was
configured. *
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The effect of the Canal was immediate and
dramatic and settlers poured west. The
explosion
of trade prophesied by Governor Clinton began, spurred by freight rates
from Buffalo to New
York of $10 per ton by Canal, compared with $100 per ton by road.
In
1829, there were
3,640 bushels of wheat transported down the Canal from Buffalo. By 1837
this figure had
increased to 500,000 bushels; four years later it reached one million. In
nine years, Canal tolls
more than recouped the entire cost of construction.
Within 15 years of the Canal's opening,
New York was the busiest
port in America, moving
tonnages greater than Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans combined.
The Erie Canal's success was part of a
Canal-building boom in New York in the 1820s.
Between 1823 and 1828, several lateral Canals opened including the
Champlain, the Oswego
and the Cayuga-Seneca. **
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Using
information from both articles, your answer might look like this:
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When DeWitt Clinton proposed the building of a canal
across New York State, many people laughed at his
idea. However, following the building of the canal, many
people migrated west. The lower cost of shipping
goods on the canal led to a significant increase in the
amount of goods shipped. The amount of wheat shipped
on the canal increased, and the tolls collected paid for
the building of the canal within 9 years. Due to the
building of the canal, New York became the busiest
port in America.
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 Remember: |
Use
information from more than one source. |
Click on the
canal for practice.
*
http://www.eriecanal.org/system.html
**http://www.nyscanals.gov/cculture/history/
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Writing an essay