Economic Boom!
Video Clip From: Personal Interview with Ana B. Koval, President and CEO of the Canal Corridor Association
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“…A canal port that would grow into a great metropolis; their fellow citizens patented agriculture and industrial innovations that would make this the richest economic zone the world had ever seen.” -The Canal Corridor Association |
"The economic development of the country tributary to the city necessarily increased its imports and exports which led in turn to an increase in the population and wealth of the city itself." -Dr. James William Putnam "In the first place, its influence on the economic development of the region adjacent to it probably surpassed the local influence of any other American canal…"
-“The Illinois and Michigan Canal- National Canal Corridor” |
“As the canal... increased their flow of grain into Chicago’s warehouses, they simultaneously encouraged an expansion of shipping out of its harbor, contributing to a general reorientation of western trade toward the east and away from the south. Between 1850 and 1854, the net westward movement of freight shipments via the Great Lakes finally surpassed the shipments out of New Orleans.”
-Donald Miller "Following up on the Erie’s success, the I&M was the final link in a chain of waterways that helped fuel the nation’s economic growth. It is no exaggeration to state that “The construction and operation of the I&M Canal from 1836 to 1933 in northeast Illinois tells one of the most significant stories in the transportation history of the United States.”
-Along the I&M Canal |
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“While the canal played an important part as a commercial route between the East and the West before the rise of railroad transportation, its influence on the economic development of the region adjacent to it was even more marked as is attested by the growth of population, industry and commerce in that portion of the state, in the quarter of a century from 1830 to 1855.”
-“The Illinois and Michigan Canal- National Canal Corridor”
-“The Illinois and Michigan Canal- National Canal Corridor”