"Didn't expect no town" -Early Chicago Settler Mark Beaubien
The I & M Canal is universally considered the driving force behind the huge surge of growth that turned the tiny settlement on the banks of Lake Michigan named Chicago, in to a huge metropolis and bustling center of trade.
Ever since Joliet first crossed the portage between the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River in 1673, explorers, investors, politicians, and farmers alike all agreed that constructing a canal across the continental divide could benefit them greatly. The canal would connect the two largest water systems in the United States, creating a continuous waterway between New York and New Orleans, but more importantly, place Chicago on perhaps the most valuable piece of real estate in North America and in the position to become an international city almost overnight.
The plans to build the Illinois & Michigan canal began in the newly started Illinois legislature in 1818. It was driven forward by the new construction on the Erie Canal in New York. Once the Erie Canal was complete only a canal between the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers would be necessary to complete the chain of waterways connecting New York to New Orleans.
In 1822, Congress gave Illinois a large portion of land on which to not only build the canal, but to sell to raise funds for its construction. The land contained the portage between the two rivers and about 100 miles of land to the south and west of it. It had just recently been coercively and dishonestly purchased from the local Blackhawk Indians in a treaty that ended the Blackhawk War.
As soon as the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, eastern investors quickly realized Chicago's huge potential. The land around what would one ...
... middle of paper ...
...ys to twelve days.
The canal remained a profitable enterprise until the year 1866 when the newly completed railroad system proved to be a cheaper and more efficient alternative. Use of the canal did not disappear however until around 1900 when it began to fall into disrepair. The final deathblow to the Illinois & Michigan came when the big, wider, and deeper Illinois Waterway was completed in 1933. However, though no longer in commercial use, the Illinois & Michigan canal remains as a source of recreation and will forever be remembered as the spark responsible for Chicago's leap to prominence.
In 1833 the population of the newly incorporated town of Chicago was 250 people, by 1854, only 20 years later, the population had swelled to over 75 thousand. The city of Chicago had ascended from a tiny trading outpost to a thriving metropolis at an unprecedented speed.
The National Bank created a standarad form of currency and helped pay off the revolutionary war debt. In 1816, there was a second twenty year charter. It was founded during the administration of U.S. President James Madison to stabilize currency. The estblaishment of a national bank led improvements in transportation because now roads could be paid for. These Improvements in Transportations were good for communication around the nation, which helped send messages faster. In 1818, the national road started the growing road systems that tied the new west to the old east. The Erie Canal was built in New York and runs from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.
Chicago in the 1920s was a turning point for the development of ethnic neighborhoods. After the opening of the first rail connection from New York to Chicago in the 1840s, immigration sky rocketed from that point on. Majority of the immigrants to Chicago were Europeans. The Irish, Italians, eastern European Jews, Germans, and Mexicans were among the most common ethnicities to reside in Chicago. These groups made up the greater part of Chicago. The sudden increase in immigration to Chicago in the 1920s soon led to an even further distinguished separation of ethnicities in neighborhoods. The overall development of these neighborhoods deeply impacted how Chicago is sectioned off nowadays. Without these ethnicities immigrating to Chicago almost 100 years ago, Chicago neighborhoods would not be as culturally defined and shaped as they are today.
The transition, however, was not so smooth. Men and women were attracted to the new cities because of the culture and conveniences that were unavailable to rural communities. Immigrants in particular were eager to get to cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston for these reasons, and to look for better jobs than the ones they had found at home. In fact, without the increase in immigration from 1850 to 1920 (where around 38 million came to America), cities would have expanded at lethargic rates – if at all – due to a decreasing fertility rate and a high rate of infant mortality. Death due to disease was also common. Yet the influx of immigrants managed to make up for these losses, and cities grew exponentially for nearly a century1.
At the beginning, may be the intentions were changing through its construction process. But it certainly the canal had the support of workers and opposition on top of this many people. A interesting aspect I could say it is that The Erie cans was financed by the New York Stated and...
There is one reason Chicago is as big as it is today and that is the fact that it is the largest rail city in the world. The railroad made Chicago what it is today, and although the canal was very important in the history of Chicago the railroads importance out weighs it by far. The canal was important because it was the vision of the first settlers of Chicago to have an all water trade route that would go through Chicago. What those first explorers saw was a way to make a canal so that they could transport goods from the St Lawrence River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico with less cost and with more efficiency. The canal was the reason Chicago was settled in the first place if not for it there might very well not be a city called Chicago. You could argue that the canal was the most important thing in Chicago's history but I think the railroads were much more important. The railroads enabled Chicago to become one of the biggest cities in the world by bringing in different business and all types of goods. Chicago is a very key location to have a railroad-shipping hub. This is because it is centrally located in the United States so goods can be shipped in almost any direction and received in a shorter amount of time. William Butler Ogden was the one who pushed for Chicago to adopt a large rail system and he should be known as the one who made this city boom. St. Louis or another centrally located city could have very well adopted the rail system and they would have reaped all the benefits.
During the Jacksonian Era, in America, there were many changes happening, one of which was western expansion. During this time, Louis and Clark had already explored the west, but people were dying to be able to trade, and live there. With the grueling journey that would effect anyone trying to reach the west, came a new notion, of a canal that reached from Lake Erie on towards the east. This canal could transport people, as well as goods back and forth from the newly explored territory. Eventually this dream successfully became a reality.
Transportation was huge after the Erie Canal was made/ built, it made traveling much more safe and faster. [Peter L.B] has made much appearances and opinions about the Erie Canal and has had good statements about it. "...Villages miles apart seemed far..." What he was getting to is that the Erie Canal can make distances in a short time. In [chart 1] of the DBQ it shows how cheaper and easier it is to take the canal with a boat instead of a wagon. It states that the canal is 94$ cheaper than dirt road/ trail. The lining in [chart 2] is presenting good transport for resources. It makes the shown appearance that during the 60's goods were ranged over 450,000$ and had great product of appearance with no bandits. In addition to transport, its now time for population change because of the Erie Canal.
People in the northern United States during the early nineteenth century wanted to rapidly industrialize and increase the amount of money they were making. The Erie Canal they believed was a great way to reduce the distance and time of shipping goods to the west. They also realized that the canal would probably increase their markets, which would mean a larger profit. The problem with all of this was how people had to destroy parts of nature in order for this to happen. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a prominent writer during the time, described the canal as “too rapid, unthinking advance of progress.” (57) Hawthorne and his supporters were very upset to see how forests and swamps were being destroyed and ruined in order t...
The development of canal, steam boats and railroads provided a transportation network that linked different regions of the nation together. When farmers began migrating westward and acquiring land for crops, cheaper forms of transportation provided the means to transfer their goods to other regions for s...
All of the positive predictions of how the Erie Canal turned out could be considered "correct" depending on what point you view the situation from. During the mid to late 1820s, trade, and revenue boomed. During this time, revenue in the state of Ohio went from $0, to a little over $450,000 in just the span of about ten years, (Chart 2). Supporting that information in Chart 4, it shows that bushels of wheat transported on the Erie Canal in approximately ten years increases by one million bushels. That is a lot of bushels of wheat. Another example of positive change after the Erie Canal was built might be that in towns, the canal was sometimes considered the "lifeline" of the town. "A Jordan resident was quoted as saying that the canal was the main street of the village and the lifeline," (Picture 1). In picture 2, it could represent a positive change because it shows how many people traveled through the canal and how many new goods reached the western area of the United States through the Erie Canal. This canal also brings new realizations to people during this time about religion and how people were being treated. "A new understanding of how the spiritual transformation of the individual might bring about change was taking place," (Document E). This shows that people had new beliefs and that when traveling the Erie Canal you have new chances. This document in general also shows that people who were traveling the
Chicago is well known for being very close with water. Not only is there Lake Michigan but also the Chicago River that runs through the middle of the city. In the heart of the city bridges help bring boats through the busy city streets and on the outskirts trains are brought across the water. No matter where you are in Chicago, you probably had crossed a bridge to get there.
The Erie Canal created what was the first reliable transportation system, connecting the eastern seaboard (New York) and the western interior (Great Lakes) of the United States that did not require on land travel. Along with making water routes faster then travel on land it also cut costs of travel by 95 percent. The canal started a population surge in western New York, and opened regions farther west to settlement. This was the start of New York City becoming the chief U.S. port.
McCullough explains how Johnstown became an example of ‘The Gilded Age’ industrialization prior to the 1889 disaster. The canal made Johnstown the busiest place in Cambria County in the 1820s. By the 1850s the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron Company began, and the population increased. There were about 30,000 people in the area before the flood. The Western Reservoir was built in the 1840s, but became generally known as the South Fork dam. It was designed to supply extra water for the Main Line canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh. By saving the spring floods, water could be released during the dry summers. When the dam was completed in 1852, the Pennsylvania Railroad completed the track from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and the canal business began its decline. The state offered to sell the canal, the railroad company bought it for the right of ways yet had no need to maintain the dam, which due to neglect, broke for the first time in 1862. McCullough stresses that man was responsible for the...
The Panama Canal is an international waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The United States began to build the canal in 1904. The canal took up to 1914 to be completely built. After being completely built, around 8,000 miles were excluded from traveling from the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. It was built to make the ships have a shorter distance to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The canal has 110 feet wide locks.
he Panama Canal is a canal about 50 miles (80 km) long, across the Isthmus of Panama, that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It began by in 1881, was abandoned in 1889 and was completed by the US, 1904–14. Control of the canal remained with the US until 1999, when it was ceded to Panama. It is an important feature in Latin America because the Panama Canal allows you to travel by water from California to Florida, without having to go around South America. The Panama Canal is important to international trade because its located between the Americas so it makes travel for ships immensely less time consuming and safer.