On October 26, 1825, the Erie Canal opened, offering a quicker shipping route through New York’s waterways. In the early 1800s, sending goods west from New York City across the state was expensive and took a lot of time. There were no railroads yet and it took two weeks to travel by stagecoach. Several New York legislators proposed the idea of building a canal across the state, and they received tremendous support from Governor DeWitt Clinton. Clinton had served as a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention, a US Senator, and mayor of New York City before being elected governor in 1817. While in office, he pushed for the construction of the Erie Canal to connect the upper Hudson River to the eastern shore of Lake Erie.