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The Erie Canal

Total questions: 41

Worksheet time: 24mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

The Erie Canal connected the commercial ports of New York CIty and, thus, the Atlantic Ocean to...

a)

Philadelphia.

b)

Panama Canal.

c)

the Great Lakes Region.

d)

New England Shipping Towns.

2.

Who was the gung-ho champion behind the building the Erie Canal?

a)

engineer and inventor Robert Fulton

b)

New York Governor DeWitt Clinton

c)

President Andrew Jackson

d)

President Thomas Jefferson

3.
How long did the Erie Canal take to build?
a)
2 years
b)
5 years
c)
8 years
d)
15 years
4.

LANGUAGE ARTS CONNECTION.

What change, if any, should be made?

Opened November 4 1825, the Erie Canal made it possible to travel directly from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes area by water.

a)

insert a comma after 4

b)

change directly to direckly

c)

change Ocean to ocean

d)

make no change

5.

LANGUAGE ARTS CONNECTION. What change, if any, should be made?


Shipmunts that had taken 20 days to send over land took only eight days to send on the canal.

a)

change Shipmunts to Shipments

b)

change twenty to Twenty

c)

insert a comma after the second days

d)

make no change

6.

LANGUAGE ARTS CONNECTION. What change, if any, should be made?


Crops lumber, and other goods could be transported by canal ten times more cheaply.

a)

insert a comma after Crops

b)

change lumber to Lumber

c)

change goods to good's

d)

make no change

7.

LANGUAGE ARTS CONNECTION. What change, if any, should be made?


Since the canal made it easier to ship goods to and from the region around the Great Lakes, it helped city populations grow there, too.

a)

change region to Region

b)

change cities to cities'

c)

change the period after too to a question mark

d)

make no chnage

8.
What major industry ruined the canal industry?
a)
Textile.
b)
Railroad. 
c)
Airplane.
d)
Plantation Cash Crops.
9.
Canals brought wealth to towns, linked regions of the country, and
a)
raised shipping costs
b)
lowered shipping costs
c)
made travel easier
d)
made travel faster
10.

ANALYSIS. You decide to sell your small farm in New Hampshire and move to Ohio. Both you and your neighbors plan to travel there on the Erie Canal. How would you categorize this effect of the canal? Pick the BEST option by analyzing the information.

a)

Social

b)

Economic

c)

Geographic

d)

Political

11.

ANALYSIS. Pick the BEST option by analyzing the information.

You are a farmer. The Erie Canal was built through the middle of your largest field. To make it easier to reach your field on the other side of the canal, you build a bridge. Now you can get to your field again and make money by charging a toll for people to use your bridge! How would you categorize this effect of the canal?

a)

Economic

b)

Geographic

c)

Social

12.

ANALYSIS. Pick the BEST option by analyzing the information.

You are a merchant who receives wheat from the Great Lakes region and then ships it to Europe. In the last eight years, the amount of wheat going east has grown from 4,000 to 500,000 bushels per year. Business is very good. How would you categorize this effect of the canal?

a)

Social

b)

Geographic

c)

Economic

d)

Political

13.

ANALYSIS. You share the canal boat with many other passengers. It is crowded, but you know the journey would take MUCH longer if you traveled by land in a horse-drawn wagon. How would you categorize this effect of the canal?

a)

Economic

b)

Social

c)

Geographic

d)

Political

14.

IDENTIFICATION. Who was the western pioneer that explored the Appalachian Mountains

a)

Davy Crockett

b)

Daniel Boone

c)

Zebulon Pike

d)

Morty Sellars

15.

A new waterway made it much faster to move farm goods from the Ohio River valley to eastern cities. A new technology allowed boats to travel against the currents of rivers. A new route across land to the West that Daniel Boone helped create.

Which of the following correctly identifies the three transportation improvements described above?

a)

the Erie Canal, the steamboat, and Wilderness Road

b)

the steamboat, the mechanical reaper, and railroads

c)

the cotton gin, the Erie Canal, and the telegraph

d)

the Erie Canal, the steamboat, and spinning machines

16.
Which road connected Ohio to NYC?
a)
The Way Home
b)
The National Road
c)
The Road to Success
d)
The Inter-coastal Road
17.

A road that one must pay to use.

a)

convoy

b)

access road

c)

highway

d)

turnpike

18.
The Erie Canal connected the Atlantic Ocean to the 
a)
Pacific ocean
b)
Panama canal 
c)
Great Lakes
d)
Lynwood pool
19.
this physical barrier made it difficult to ship freight from the East to lands settled in the West
a)
The Rocky Mountains 
b)
Dodger Stadium 
c)
The Erie Canal
d)
The Mississippi River
20.

People who have ideas to change or improve people's lives are called _______ .

a)

dictators

b)

innovators or visionaries

c)

characters

d)

followers

21.
toll roads
a)
canal
b)
Robert Fulton
c)
turnpikes
d)
census
22.

VOCABULARY.

Which of the following is an artificial waterway built to transport goods and people?

a)

canal

b)

pond

c)

railroad

d)

jeep

23.

Named after a type of cloth, rough roads built of logs laid side by side were called...

a)

ridge roads

b)

corduroy roads

c)

cotton roads

d)

silk roads

24.
Which road connected Ohio with the East? 
a)
Vandalia Road
b)
East-West Road
c)
Ohio Road
d)
National Road
25.

Who was Robert Fulton?

a)

an American engineer and inventor

b)

a wealthy American who bought lands west of the Mississippi River

c)

a trader who sold wagons to settlers

d)

a famous painter of early American landscapes

26.

Spelling and Identification.

Who Invented a steam boat?

a)

Robert Fulton

b)

Robert Fultun

c)

Robert Fultonn

d)

Robet Fulton

27.

FACT. The Erie Canal was the biggest construction project in the ___ world in the last ___ years.

a)

Western, 4,000

b)

Eastern, 3,000

c)

Western, 3,200

d)

Western, 2,000

e)

Eastern, 3,000

28.

Mules were used to _____ along the Erie Canal.

a)

pull canoes

b)

pull barges

c)

pull freight trains

d)

pull steamboats

29.

The Erie Canal was dug entirely by hand and with the use of gunpowder explosives.

a)

TRUE

b)

FALSE

30.

According tot he documentary, America lacked a single qualified _____ when the Erie Canal was built.

a)

doctor

b)

geologist

c)

engineer

d)

architect

31.

Who said the following?

"I think of the spirit of America as being imagination combined with tenacity. There's a strong work ethic. The wonderful freedom of creation combined with the mental muscle and physical labor, so, to me, it represents the best of the human spirit."

a)

entertainer and entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs

b)

actor Michael Douglas

c)

former New York CIty mayor Michael Bloomberg

d)

former New York CIty mayor Robert Guiliano

32.

Which of the following was the biggest geological problem facing the crews digging the canal?

a)

a wall of solid quartz, 60 feet high

b)

a wall of solid iron ore, 60 feet high

c)

a wall of solid limestone, 60 feet high

d)

a wall of solid volcanic rock, 60 feet high

33.

The Erie Canal would change everything by linking the _____ to the whole of middle America.

a)

Gulf of Mexico

b)

Mississippi RIver

c)

Pacific Ocean

d)

Atlantic Ocean

34.

SCIENCE CONNECTION. Which is the correct combination of the highly combustible mix the Irish crews used to make gunpowder explosives building the Erie Canal?

a)

nitrate, charcoal, and magnesium

b)

nitrate, gypsum, and sulfur

c)

nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur

d)

nitrate, gypsum, and liquid methane

35.

Former New York mayor _____ said, "Entrepreneurship is about doing things where you don't know what it's going to look like, what it is going to be made of, you just have this instinct that you can do it, and it will work."

a)

Michael R. Bloomberg

b)

Mario Cuomo

c)

David Paterson

d)

Rudy Giuliani

36.

Dr. ______ said, "I think when you're brought up in America, you're brought up on a history of hard work. There are so many immigrants that have died to build this country; that's in our bloodstream. in our DNA,. As Americans, we don't want their lives to go in vain because of that we usually work harder than anybody else."

a)

Kanye West

b)

"J. Z" Shawn Carter

c)

Pharrell Williams

d)

Sean Combs, a.k.a. Diddy

37.

Which city DID NOT experience a "boom" in it's population along the Erie Canal?

a)

Rochester

b)

Albany

c)

Syracuse

d)

Savannah

38.

Which two U.S. Presidents REFUSED to fund the construction of the Erie Canal?

a)

Jefferson and Clinton

b)

Jefferson and Madison

c)

Jefferson and Adams

d)

Jefferson and Jackson

39.

ARGUMENT CLAIMS. What were arguments people of that period had AGAINST building the Erie Canal with tax money?

a)

the canal would increase spur the growth of better schools, hospitals, colleges, and industries

b)

the canal would attract runaway slaves, unskilled workers, and engineers of the Underground Railroad

c)

the canal would be built through swamps, virgin forests, there was no labor, there was no machinery to do that kind of excavation, etc.

40.

How old was the American nation when the Erie Canal was begun?

a)

just 41 years old

b)

just 42 years old

c)

just 44 years old

d)

just 45 years old

41.

TRUE or FALSE

Governor DeWitt Clinton's plan for building of the Erie Canal stated that it was to be dug by hand- all 363 miles, be 40-feet wide and four feet deep, and have 83 stone locks for the smooth regulation of canal traffic.

a)

TRUE

b)

FALSE