At the same time it would benefit the farmers of those regions by bringing their produce to tide water cheaper than it could be brought by road through Pennsylvania. It would still further benefit the farmers by enabling them to buy their goods much cheaper, as the rates of freight would be so much lower by canal than they were by road. People who did not see these things as clearly as De Witt Clinton saw them, spoke of the enterprise most sneeringly and called the canal "Clinton's big ditch." It very soon appeared that Clinton was right. In one year the cost of carrying a ton of grain from Lake Erie to the Hudson River fell from one hundred dollars to fifteen dollars. New York City soon outstripped all its rivals and became the center of trade and money in the United States. Other canals, as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, were marvels of skill. But they were not so favorably situated as the Erie Canal and could not compete with it successfully.
同时，这条河还将让住在这个地区的农民收益--他们通过这条运河将农副产品运到海边要比通过穿越宾夕法尼亚州的陆路更加便宜。这条河还可以让这里的农民们进一步受益，他们通过这条运河就可以买到相当便宜的货物，因为运河上的运费要比走陆路的运费低得多。人们并没有和德o维特o克林顿同时清醒地认识到这些，他们谈到这个工程时带着极大的嘲讽，并称它为"克林顿的大沟"。但很快就证明克林顿是正确的，不到一年，从伊利湖将一吨谷物运到哈得孙河的花费就从100美元降到15美元，纽约市迅速超越其他城市成为美国的贸易和货币中心。其他运河都是技术的杰作，如切萨皮克运河和俄亥俄运河，但是，伊利运河地理位置重要，人们对它的赞誉最多，其他运河都不能与之相比。
297. Early Railroads.
297．最初的铁路
The best stone and gravel roads were always rough in places. It occurred to some one that it would be better to lay down wooden rails, and then to place a rim or flange on the wagon wheels to keep them on the rails. The first road of this kind in America was built at Boston in 1807. It was a very rude affair and was only used to carry dirt from the top of a hill to the harbor. The wooden rails soon wore out, so the next step was to nail strips of iron on top of them. Long lines of railroads of this kind were soon built. Both passengers and goods could be carried on them. Some of them were built by private persons or by companies. Others were built by a town or a state. Any one having horses and wagons with flanged wheels could use the railway on the payment of a small sum of money. This was the condition of affairs when the steam locomotive was invented.
那些最好的由石头和碎石制成的马路的路面总是十分粗糙，人们发现一个能对此做出改善的方法：把木制的栏杆铺到地上，并给马车的轮子装上轮缘以保证轮子能走在栏杆上。1870年波士顿修成第一条这样的路，这条路非常粗陋，只用于将污泥从山上运到港口。这些木栏杆很快就破损了，因此下一步是在这些栏杆上钉上铁钉。很快人们建成了较长的这样的路轨，无论载人还是运送货物的马车都可以在上面运行。部分这样的路是由个人或公司所修建，其他的则是由某个镇或者某个州修建。只要付出一点钱，任何有马匹和带有轮缘马车的人都可以使用这种路轨，这就是发明蒸汽机车时的环境条件。