How Did The Erie Canal Change America

Unfortunately, with few exceptions, navigable rivers and lakes did not link up conveniently to form usable transportation networks. Before the war of 1812m some Americans considered canals as a likely solution, but enormous costs and engineering problems had limited canal construction to less than 100 miles. After the war, the entry of development opened the way to an era of canal building. New York State was most successful at canal development. In 1817 the state started work on on a canal that would run over more than 350 miles’ form Lake Erie to the Hudson River. About three thousand workers worked on digging a huge ditch that would eventually form the Erie Canal. The last leg was completed in 1825 and the first freight boat made its way from Buffalo to Albany and then on to New York

When the Canal was built towns all along the route from Buffalo to Albany prospered from the revenue and the attraction the Canal brought with it. Whether the Canal was being used for business people, immigrants, settlers of the region, or tourists, the border-towns all had some appeal to these persons. After some time the state was continually asked to expand the Canal from the original route to include connecting canal routes. However, the same towns along the route from Buffalo to Albany had already been established along the lines of the original canal. These towns would need to be relocated in order to obey these new requests. This presented a major problem because the people in these towns had formed a life around the Canal and many of them made their income based of the Canal. The inhabitants of the towns changed their mentality from not wanting the Canal to invade on their lives, to it being an essential part of their lives they depended upon.

Alongside the American System, Representative John C. Calhoun of South Carolina also suggested better transportation systems. He believed that these systems would link cities and make a nation more united and larger, and larger meant stronger. In 1817, he cheered, “‘let us bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals’” (Nationalism and Sectionalism 2). For the next couple years, more roads and canals were being constructed. In 1806, Congress funded a road that stretched from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia. In 1841, the road extended into Illinois and became the nation’s main east-west route (Nationalism and Sectionalism 2). The road was named the National Road. Additionally, with the building of canals, water transportation improved. From 1825 to 1850, the period was called the Age of Canals. In 1825, the Erie Canal was finished, and it linked the waters of Lake Erie. As the document discloses, the Erie Canal “created a water route between New York City and Buffalo, New York. The canal opened the upper Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes region to settlement and trade” (Nationalism and Sectionalism 2). The Erie Canal allowed the Great Lakes to transport their farm products to flow east, and the people and manufactured goods would flow from the east to the west (Nationalism and Sectionalism 2). Since trade was regulated from New York City, it made New York City the country’s largest city. The source states, “between 1820 and 1830, its population swelled from less than 124,000 to more than 200,000” (Nationalism and Sectionalism 2). Furthermore, in the 1830s, the nation began to use steam-powered trains, trains powered by a steam engine of coal, oil, or wood, for transportation. This type of transportation was built to be faster and more convenient for the people. Initially,

Another major way the Erie Canal was a paradox was that it the New York state government started taking on new responsibilities. This resulted in many people depending on the state government of New York and Canal Board in helping them reach financial success. While the canal was being built, there were constant complaints of how the canal made a person lose business. The New York state government was building the canal to spur economic activity, and now they were being blamed for the canal decreasing so many people’s profit. Obviously the canal would not have helped everybody in New York in a positive way, but it would not affect such a

Have you ever needed easier access to the essential items to stay alive? This is specifically what the residents of the North-East thought around the year 1817. Carol Sheriff argues in her book, “The Artificial River” that the residents of the canal corridor actively sought after long-distance trade and therefore consumer goods that markets brought to their homes. The fact that people supported the Erie Canal at all "suggests that at least some aspired to engage in broader market exchange" (p. 11). The transformation of this region because of the Erie Canal is organized around six topics, each of which is covered by a chapter. They include the; Visions of Progress, the Triumph of Art over Nature, Reducing Distance and Time, the Politics of Land and Water, the Politics of Business, and the Perils of Progress.

Inventions like the iPhone have paved the road for social, economical, and political improvements. It allowed many opportunities for people to capitalize on whether it be economically like amazon, or socially like youtube as did the railroad that connected the states together. The transcontinental railroad most impacted America economically through encouraging imports and exports amongst the states, making transportation cheaper, and opening up cities along the railroad itself.

In the early 19th century the transportation of goods between the east and west was expensive and time consuming. The normal way of transportation before the canal, was by horse drawn carriages. Then the bold idea of the Erie Canal was proposed to ease the tiring commute. The Erie canal was intentionally built to open the country west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlers. The canal would also provide a safe, cheaper way for produce to be carried to various markets. The canal then became the fastest way

Similar to the light bulb’s legacy of ideas, the transcontinental railroad paved the way for new transportation. “The transcontinental railroad act is the first step in creating a continental common market.” This quote by, Charles R. Morris, defines the wide-spread uprising in the American Economy after establishing a railroad that would last a lifetime. The Transcontinental Railroad economically transformed America because of the trade and commerce it brought. Now capable of fast communication, we could quickly and cheaply of transport goods and ourselves. t’s wide impact developed a independent country were we could efficiently practice a free enterprise. Bringing in trade, shipping and new exports/imports, it elevated our economy to a higher level of technology.

Numerous factors brought unity to an adolescent nation which prevailed the confidence Americans needed for self-identity. As rapid mass-communication and transportation became easily available, any individual had the luxury of pursuing a life with personal freedoms just a grasp away. Moving west was made attractive for numerous reasons. For example, shipping products such as beaver fur enable a fashionable trend which sparked a demand in garments. The construction of the Erie Canal in 1825 that connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson River boomed the motivation, whether it was cost effective or not, completing miles into small distances, according to a journalist, “In thirty-six minutes we had passed near three miles, and reached the east of an embankment about 136 chains long across the valley of the Sedaqueda creek”. This economic process boomed with new opportunities for average Americans during the Era of Good Feeling. The early republic also had more busted effects from internal

Actually, to blame the entire U.S. as a whole would be completely unfair. The entire Erie Canal project brought great prosper to many areas in the United States that helped the nation as a whole prosper. Mr. Woodcock goes on to describe the immense economic advancement that astonishes him. Towns, hotels, and accommodations were being built in short time, all over the route. But, he describes these people involved in this creation as “mad” by selling promises that didn 't even exist at the time. Sheer confidence in the prosperity of the area is what made it grow. Where there was no money, or actual income – where it needed to be – there was a grand system in place that comes down to the core of what American Society has founded itself upon and survives until this day, “Credit.”

During the 19th Century, the United States was downright obsessed with expanding westward. They believed it was their God-given right to span the entire continent. With more and more territories being added to the ever-growing roster, they needed a way to get from point A to point B quickly. The solution: The Erie Canal and the Transcontinental Railroad. The result: A huge growth in the U.S.’s economy.

Immigrants came flooding into the United States in hope of finding work. However, the canal did not attract just immigrants; it also brought visitors and tourists. Bringing in a sea of people, America was soon growing economically and nationally. “I have no doubt it is correct; for that I know was my early opinion, and many, I dare say still think with me that N. York has anticipated by a full century the ordinary progress of improvement.” More cities were established in the Midwest. Because the canal was such an attraction for people all over the world, the United States began to function and expand on using ships and relying on ships to transfer products to other parts in America.

First off, The Erie Canal changed America in many different ways such as trade, travel safety, and woman's rights (Background Essay) It took 8 years to complete the Erie Canal, it was 363 miles long, when they finished it, it had become a much safer way for transportation (Doc 4). People got killed while traveling " A young English woman met with her death a short time since, she having fallen asleep with her head upon a box, had her head crushed to pieces." The Erie Canal has made transportation more safer for other to travel places, it not only was safer but much faster, It made traffic go faster by making this Canal. Finally, the Canal brought less dangerous traffic, they had really low bridges so they knew they were coming to a town.

The construction of the Suez and Panama Canals greatly affected overseas trade and commerce. The Suez Canal, which connected the Mediterranean and Red Seas though the Isthmus of Suez, had a large impact on the world economy by greatly reducing the amount of travel time required to send goods to different regions, The Panama Canal, which was built through the Isthmus of Panama, also had a similar effect on commerce by connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There were different motivations for the building of the Panama and Suez Canals, and their construction was hindered by challenging obstacles. The French used the idea that Egypt would flourish with the building of the Suez Canal to motivate the Egyptians to give permission for its construction.

The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most ambitious engineering projects, economic stimulants, and efficient methods of transportation in the early United States. If completed, the United States would be truly be united from east to west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Transcontinental Railroad helped develop new opportunities for many aspects of American life.