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Groundbreaking at Rome

Name: Groundbreaking at Rome
Start: 1817-07-04
Location: Rome, New York

When: July 4, 1817
Where: Rome, New York
Part of: Construction begins on the Erie Canal

Construction on the Erie Canal officially began on July 4, 1817, at Rome, New York, following legislative authorization.

The New York State Legislature authorized construction in 1817. DeWitt Clinton, who had secured $7 million in funding, was governor at the time. Construction on the canal began at Rome, New York, on July 4, 1817, a date conventionally observed as the ceremonial start of the waterway's construction.

Sources

Rome, New York Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25
Erie Canal Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-04
DeWitt Clinton Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-13

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.