Will: Erie Canal, here’s to your 200th. Thanks for transforming America.

Americans’ pockets hold digital devices delivering oceans of information and distractions. But another technology that dramatically shaped the nation’s life, and had revolutionary consequences abroad, was a ditch. Raise a glass as the 200th birthday of the Erie Canal is celebrated on Sunday.

Its 363 miles — the longest previous U.S. canal extended 27 miles — were dug by human muscle in the service of improvised cleverness. Improvised because America had few engineers to create 18 aqueducts, and 83 locks, “to overcome changes in elevation totaling 675 feet.” So writes Daniel Walker Howe in “What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848” in the Oxford History of the United States.

George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

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