Announcer there are more than 400 National Parks across america, covering 85 million acres of land with locations in every state. People 325 million visited these sites last year. Over the next 90 minutes, we will feature a mixture of Natural Beauty and history at eight different parks across the country. We began outside cleveland at the cuyahoga National Park. Situated along the river, we will learn how the canal system in ourayed a major role nations westward expansion during the 1840s. The ohio and erie canal is part of a system that was put in place in the early years of america, between 1825 and 1832. It is a water transportation route that connected lake erie with the ohio river, which is part of a larger idea. A National Water transportation route. In the early days of america we had colonies situated right along the atlantic seaboard. Our leaders at that time so i problem. The problem was, we needed that country to expand westward. However, there was a big obstacle. The appala