The Erie Canal, linking New York City with Buffalo, New York, (via Albany and the Hudson River) opened in 1825 and proved to be a financial boon to merchants in New York City. The canal also gave cities on the Great Lakes a transportation cost advantage equal to that of cities on the Ohio River (then the major east-west transportation route for both goods and people west of the Appalachians). Encouraged by the canal's success, railroads began rapid construction in interior regions to link isolated markets to the canals and to other railroads.