. A history of the United States. the Lakes,and through them to the Northwest. With such objects in mind Clinton persuaded the legislatureof New York to raise the money for a canal from Albany toBuffalo. To build a big ditch, as Clintons enemies calledit, 360 miles long, by means of spades and wheel-barrows,seemed a wild scheme, but the plan won the support of the peo-ple and, in 1825, after eight years of work, it was completed. ^ The name Conestoga was given because they were first used by thethrifty farmers in the valley of the Conestoga River, in eastern Pennsylvania,for carrying their far
. A history of the United States. the Lakes,and through them to the Northwest. With such objects in mind Clinton persuaded the legislatureof New York to raise the money for a canal from Albany toBuffalo. To build a big ditch, as Clintons enemies calledit, 360 miles long, by means of spades and wheel-barrows,seemed a wild scheme, but the plan won the support of the peo-ple and, in 1825, after eight years of work, it was completed. ^ The name Conestoga was given because they were first used by thethrifty farmers in the valley of the Conestoga River, in eastern Pennsylvania,for carrying their farm products to market. CANALS 307 It was a great event for New York City, and for the peoplealong the way, but most of all for the people of the had formerly cost them $32 a ton to send their freight100 miles by wagon. The canal carried the same load for $ stream of emigrants began to move by the canal into theregion on the Lakes. They were as certain to find a goodmarket for their products as the farmers on the Map of the Erie Canal Other Canals. — Ohio, encouraged by the example of NewYork, built a system of canals connecting the Ohio River andLake Erie. Ports Hke Cleveland became distributing cen-ters for products from the East, brought by the Erie Canaland Lake Erie. The farm products of Ohio and northernIndiana were forwarded to the East from these were multiplied on the Lakes as they had beenmultipHed on the western rivers. Philadelphia was alarmed by the success of the Erie Canaland attempted to rival it by building a canal to of the way the freight was hauled across the mountains,being pulled up and let down inchned railways by stationaryengines placed at the highest point. 3o8 NEW WORK AND NEW ROUTES Every state now wanted a net-work of canals to reach dis-tricts far from rivers and lakes. Congress gave liberally toaid some of these projects, offering large sections of thepublic lands, by the sale of which the neede
Size: 2120px × 1178px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidhistoryofuni, bookyear1913
