The opening of the Erie Canal was followed by the initiation of many other schemes of a similar kind. The real date of the era of canal building in the United States was 1825-30. Pennsylvania, following directly upon the heels of the Erie, constructed a work which was partly railway, and partly canal, and upon which the State expended no less a sum than 50 millions of dollars (10,000,000_l._).[111] This line, however, was not successful. “The works, although of great local use and value, never became factors of any importance in the general commerce of the country.”[112] The State which, next to New York, achieved the greatest success in the construction of canals was Ohio. In 1832 two lines were opened through that State—one from Cleveland to Portsmouth, on the Ohio, the other from Toledo to Cincinnati. Their capacity did not allow the passage of boats carrying cargoes exceeding thirty tons. At its highest point, in 1857, their traffic reached 1,635,744 tons. The line which separated the tonnage going north to the lakes, and that going south to the river, passed east and west very near the centre of the State—the tendency of breadstuffs, on the whole, being toward the lakes, to seek their outlet through the Erie Canal; and of provisions of all kinds to the river, to seek their outlet through New Orleans. Of the exports of beef from Cincinnati in 1851, the year of the opening of the Erie railroad, and twenty-seven years after the opening of the Erie Canal, 97 per cent., went down the river to New Orleans, and only 2 per cent. northward to the lake. Of Indian corn, 96 per cent. went down the river, and only 3 per cent. to the lake. Of flour, 97 per cent. went down the river, only 1 per cent. to the lake. Of lard, 83 per cent. went down the river, and 9 per cent. to the lake. Of pork and bacon, 79 per cent. went down the river, and 5 per cent. to the lake. A very small amount of these articles went up the river to Pittsburgh, the first great manufacturing city that grew up off the line of the seaboard. Taking the whole State, two-thirds of its wheat went north, seeking an outlet by the way of the Erie Canal. Of corn and provisions, nineteen-twentieths went down the river to New Orleans. One reason, probably, for the excess of the southward movement of provisions was, that the animals were slaughtered in the autumn, too late to have their products forwarded by canal. Corn was grown chiefly in the southern part of the State. Live animals were never moved, either on the Ohio or on the New York canals. The provision trade, which now forms so enormous a traffic on the railroads running to tide-water, is wholly the creation of these works. The canals of Ohio maintained a considerable traffic until the construction of competing lines of railroads, when it declined so rapidly that, in 1856, the expense of their maintenance became greater than their revenues. They have long since been practically abandoned as routes of transportation.