Lisbon, New York of 1812, preceded by a US embargo against trade with Canada, which damaged the upstate economy; and the construction of the Erie Canal in 1824, which enabled transportation between areas accessible to the Great Lakes and New York City. Development and population flowed west. The Town of Lisbon was the first town in the county; it was formed in 1801, before the county was established. The former Lisbon Railroad Depot, now operated as the town museum, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. Also listed are the Lisbon Town Hall and United Presbyterian Church. According to
Great Lakes shipping from January to March. Some icebreakers ply the lakes, keeping the shipping lanes open through other periods of ice on the lakes. The Great Lakes are also connected by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois River (from the Chicago River) and the Mississippi River. An alternate track is via the Illinois River (from Chicago), to the Mississippi, up the Ohio, and then through the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway (a combination of a series of rivers and lakes and canals), to Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Commercial tug-and-barge traffic on