Why Build A Canal?
In the early 1800s in America, river navigation offered the only means of transporting large amounts of goods. Thus, river cities like St. Louis and New Orleans had the strongest economy in the Midwest.
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"Steamboating was born about 1812; at the end of thirty years it had grown to mighty proportions!... by reducing the freight trip to New Orleans to less than a week." -Mark Twain, Life On The Mississippi "No history of the activities of the Corps of Engineers in the Ohio River Valley could be complete without a review of the historic development of waterways navigation and waterborne commerce in the valley."
- Chapter II: Ohio River Navigation, 1783-1824 |
A Change in Waterways
Because the United States was growing and changing, water routes in the South became indirect, hazardous, and pricey for many states. The growing nation was in need of new commercial connections.
“The export trade was also still small and was subject to the embarrassments which hampered all our foreign trade during the nineteenth century, which the route from Cincinnati, Louisville, or St. Louis to the Atlantic cities by way of New Orleans was circuitous and expensive for domestic trade.”
-Dr. James William Putnam "Navigators of a later period, who used deeper-draft vessels, were to continually complain of shallow channels, shifting bars, hazardous rocks and snags, and similar obstructions. As the Ohio Valley was settled and extensive use of the rivers for marketing agricultural produce and manufactured goods developed, obstructions to navigation, because of resultant delays and losses of
boats and their cargoes, became more objectionable. "
-U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "Previously, goods had been either shipped through New Orleans or carried in wagons on overland trails; the prices in both regions reflected the high cost of shipping."
-Jim Redd |
An Opportunity for Chicago
“That there be, and hereby is, granted to the State of Illinois, for the purpose of aiding the said State in opening a canal to unite the waters of the Illinois river with those of Lake Michigan, a quantity of land ...."
-Act Granting Federal Land for Canal Purposes
-Act Granting Federal Land for Canal Purposes
In order to consider the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Illinois needed federal land grants to accomodate the length of the canal within the state's boundaries. These Canal Land Grant summaries show how much land was granted to Illinois by the State of Illinois Department of Public Works and Buildings.
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Hoping to emulate the Southern states' original success and after they had received federal land grants, Illinois started to build a canal that would complete a more direct and safer route from the Northeast to the Mississippi Valley than by navigating the Ohio River.