Erie, Lake

Fourth largest of the Great Lakes of North America, connected to Lake Ontario by the Niagara River and bypassed by the Welland Canal; length 388 km/241 mi; width 48-91 km/30-56 mi; area 25,720 sq km/9,930 sq mi. The most southerly of the Great Lakes, it is bounded on the north by Ontario, Canada; on the south and southeast by Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York State; and on the west by Michigan. Lake Erie is an important link in the St Lawrence Seaway.

It is linked to Lake Huron by Lake St Clair and the St Clair and Detroit rivers, and to the Hudson River by the New York State Barge Canal. Lake Erie ports include Cleveland and Toledo in Ohio; Erie in Pennsylvania; and Buffalo in New York. There are several small islands in the western section of the lake, including Pelee, North Bass, Middle Bass, and South Bass islands. The shallowest of the Great Lakes (greatest depth 64 m/210 ft; average depth 19 m/62 ft), Lake Erie lies 170 m/558 ft above mean sea-level. The lake became severely polluted from industrial and municipal waste, but has improved since the 1960s. The Ohio-Lake Erie Commission oversees environment and resource issues in the lake.

French explorer Louis Jolliet was the first European to see the lake, in 1669. A US naval victory near the western end of the lake in 1813 forced the British to evacuate Detroit.