The creation and continued expansion of the Interstate Highway System brought unparalleled prosperity to the economy of the United States. Goods and people could now be moved from location to location on single vehicles without the interference of railroad schedules or the hazards of poor road conditions.

But with this convenience came massive environmental costs, along with gridlock, rapidly rising infrastructure costs and associated highway tax bills, and over-dependence on foreign, non-renewable energy sources. But as energy costs have increased, a very different type of thoroughfare has come back into prominence.

"Sixty percent of the people I meet have no idea the Erie Canal is even still functioning" Tim Dufel, an assistant engineer on an Erie Canal tugboat recently told The New York Times. And if you take quick drive down Interstate 90 in New York, which parallels the canal for the eastern third of its journey, it's not hard to see why; towns full of empty, old brick factories and warehouses dot the waterway, since bypassed by the railroad, the interstate, and eventually, the St. Lawrence Seaway.

While the area isn't exactly slated for a return to its boomtown days of old, traffic on the canal has nearly tripled this year, and that's with nearly two weeks left in the shipping season. While rail carrier CSX claims it can move one ton of freight 422 miles on a gallon of fuel, real-world figures place that distance a hair over 200 miles. But floating on the canal, a barge can go 514 miles on that same gallon of fuel—quite some distance, and roughly nine times better than a comparable truck.

Efficiency isn't the only advantage the canal boasts. Barge capacities can range as high as 3,000 tons, and accommodate oddly-shaped loads too large for traditional shipping containers. A new biofuel plant in Fulton, NY, recently shipped a set of tanks that would have otherwise required reassembly along the waterway, and the canal remains the most direct water route between the East Coast and the Great Lakes waterway.

The major knock on the waterway is speed; at seven knots, the 338 mile trek takes around two days. But with resurgent, sustainability-focused growth returning to the Rust Belt region, the canal may only increase in popularity, even as oil prices fall, and the economy slows down. With a bikeway planned for the area and clean energy developments springing up left and right in the region, you can bet the Erie Canal is perfectly located for a clean, efficient, and low-carbon future.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons