The building of the Erie Canal in the first quarter of the nineteenth century is one of the greatest and most riveting stories of American ingenuity. Featuring a rich cast of characters, including not only political visionaries like Washington and Jefferson but also a huge platoon of Irish diggers as well as the canal's first travellers, Wedding of the Waters reveals that the twenty-first-century themes of urbanisation, economic growth and globalisation can all be traced to the first great macroengineering venture of American history.