Rome, New York Canal. On July 4, 1817 construction on the canal began in Rome. The Erie Canal reaches a summit in Rome, attaining an elevation of 420 feet. The first phase was completed in 1825, connecting the Hudson River by waterway to the Great Lakes. It resulted in an increase in trade and traffic between communities around the Great Lakes and New York City, stimulating development along the route. Jesse Williams founded the first cheese factory in the United States at Rome in 1851. Williams also developed the process used today for large-scale cheese manufacturing. There were numerous dairy farms in the
Great Lakes Greyhound Lines new subsidiary, named as the Great Lakes Greyhound Lines, which in 1941 took over the EMM. In 1941, when the Great Lakes GL came into existence, The Greyhound Corporation merged the Ohio GL into the new Great Lakes GL. The Ohio GL had run between Detroit and Louisville (in Kentucky) via Toledo, Dayton, and Cincinnati (all three in Ohio), plus along a detached route between Evansville and Indianapolis (both in Indiana). [The route segment between Louisville and Cincinnati had come from the Southland Transportation Company, which Harris Spearin, with the backing and financing of Wickman in Minnesota, had founded in