Canal when the War of 1812 broke out; these were the Santee Canal (opened 1800) in South Carolina, the Middlesex Canal (opened 1802) in Massachusetts and the Dismal Swamp Canal (opened 1805) in Virginia. The Erie Canal (opened 1825) was chartered and owned by the state of New York and financed by bonds bought by private investors. The Erie canal runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie. The Hudson River connects Albany to the Atlantic port of New York City and the Erie Canal completed a navigable water route from the
Thames and Severn Canal and remains the fourth longest. There were always problems with water supply, as no reservoirs were built, while the summit section near the tunnel ran through porous limestone, and there were constant difficulties with leakage. Competition from the railways took much of the canal's traffic by the end of the 19th century, and most of the canal was abandoned in 1927, the remainder in 1941. Since 1972, the Cotswold Canals Trust has been working to restore both the canal and the Stroudwater Navigation, so that it can again provide a navigable link between the Thames and the Severn. A number