| Wabash and Erie Canal | |
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.png) A restored section of canal in Delphi, Indiana | |
  Location of Wabash and Erie Canal in Indiana |
The Wabash and Erie Canal was a shipping canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Ohio River via an artificial waterway. The canal provided traders with access from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 460 miles long, it was the longest canal ever built in North America.
The canal known as the Wabash & Erie in the 1850s and thereafter, was actually a combination of four canals: the Miami and Erie Canal from the Maumee River near Toledo, Ohio, to Junction, Ohio, the original Wabash and Erie Canal from Junction to Terre Haute, Indiana, the Cross Cut Canal from Terre Haute, Indiana, to Worthington, Indiana (Point Commerce), and the Central Canal from Worthington to Evansville, Indiana.