In the early 19th century, DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York, championed and oversaw the construction of the Erie Canal, which linked the Eastern Seaboard to the Great Lakes and thus helped secure a future for the United States as a dynamic, continent-wide nation.

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Two centuries later, DeWitt Clinton descendants join in an exploration of their notable ancestor’s legacy in a book that intertwines national and family history and a photographic journey along the canal’s historic and modern routes. Features photos by George Gruel and hand-drawn maps by C. Brooke Silber.