Canals for a Nation-Pa

By Ronald E. Shaw

Book Overview

All but forgotten except as a part of nostalgic lore, American canals during the first half of the nineteenth century provided a transportation network that was vital to the development of the new nation. They lowered transportation costs, carried a vast grain trade from western farms to eastern ports, delivered Pennsylvania coal to New York, and carried thousands of passengers at what seemed effortless speed. Along their courses sprang up new towns and cities and with them new economic growth.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813108152
• ISBN13: 9780813108155
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An important period in our American history

Somewhere between the American Revolution and the Civil War there is a period of our country's history that is not as well known or recorded. The great era of the canals which for a number of years provided the most used transportation we knew is one of those periods. This book fills the gap by telling this story. From the great Erie Canal and all the songs that it inspired to the Blackstone Canal that ran from Providence to Worcester, Mass. making that inland city a "port city", the building of these great waterways is revealed. The growth of the railroads ended this colorful era but it need not be forgotten. Read this book and learn more about them.