Arkie, salt was certainly a prime canal cargo. The village of Salina preceded the city of Syracuse and was named for the salt (which was not exactly mined, but dissolved in water pumped below ground and then back to the surface; The resulting brine was then evaporated to reclaim the salt - if my memory of 7th grade science is still worth anything, this is called the solvay process). But many more factors went into the decision to build the canal, not least the need to bind together politically a sprawling country still vulnerable to the colonial ambitions of European powers, regional conflicts and its own limited lines of communication. Salt alone would not have done it. It certainly would not have justified building the canal all the way from the Hudson river to Lake Erie. -George ::-.--O