Possible Clues:

• It opened in 1825
• Albany-to-Buffalo waterway
• It was initially dubbed "Clinton's Big Ditch" by its critics
• 363-mile project known as Clinton's Folly
• The Seneca Chief was the first vessel to travel its entire length
• It has many locks
• Work on it began in Rome in 1817
• New York waterway
• Construction with many locks
• Early 19th-century engineering marvel