The Farmington Canal, also known as the New Haven and Northampton Canal, stretched 84 miles from Northampton, Massachusetts to New Haven, Connecticut. The kickoff for this ambitious project was held on the fourth of July 1825.  But the canal companies were a bit late getting underway.  By the time of the Farmington Canals’ groundbreaking in 1825 the 363 mile long Erie Canal in New York was already complete.  None-the-less, the ground breaking initiated a new transportation era in the state and Connecticut’s entry into the national canal craze was underway.