Artificial River Essay

The intellectual elements of 1815-1848 really revolutionized transportation and communication. The creation of roads really helped to dramatically cut travel time. These roads brought together the major urban areas that are located along the eastern seaboard (Keene, 263). What came next was even more measureable than the network of roads. The invention of the steamboat proved to be an economic blessing to river cities such as New Orleans (Keene, 264). It greatly changed the idea of upriver travel. The steamboat reduced the journey from New Orleans to Louisville to about a week. Canals also proved to make transporting goods even cheaper and faster. The largest undertaking to build a canal was proposed by the governor of New York. This canal

The Erie Canal had a major impact on trades from Canada. First of all, before the canal, people had to trade from coming dirt roads (Doc.2). Traveling on dirt road was time consuming. It took 28 days to reach Buffalo from New York City (Doc. 2). After the canal was built, it only 8 days. Not to mention, the cost per ton was cut down about 90 bucks (Doc. 2). This paved the way for New York City to become the busiest port city in America. (Doc. 1). Also, farmers were helped by this change. When the crops were ready to be transported, farmers loaded them onto ships in the canal and took them to different places(OI). Virginia Schomp called the growth because of the canal a “terrific boon”(Doc. 1). As a result, America was changed forever.

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.

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.

In the years before 1830 Cleveland was not yet considered a city as it is known today. No crowded streets, no traffic, no skyscrapers, or residential neighborhoods. Cleveland was only a small village. In 1824, Cleveland was a town with nine stores and three taverns (Miller, 1997; Wheeler 1997). Since the village was so small everyone knew each other. Cleveland served mainly as a meeting place for local farmers. Farmers sent their produce to Buffalo and New York City. It was anticipated that the population would grow to 500 citizens by 1825. Why was this drastic change going to happen? The State of Ohio had made a very important decision in 1825. The State had decided to locate the Northern end

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.”

Although the canal did not receive much support in the beginning, it soon proved to be a great benefit to New York and the entire country. Once the Erie Canal opened, shipping costs from New York to the Midwest dropped from $100 a ton to less than $10 a ton, and the time it took to ship the goods was cut down by a third. This greatly increased trade for New York City businesses. Many settlers used the canal to travel to upstate New York and points farther west. This influx of people opened up new markets for New York City businesses. It also increased the financial and physical growth of cities along the canal route. Many people ask "so what we could have waited for

The canal and railroad systems, which grew up in the North, facilitated a much larger volume of trade and manufacturing while reducing costs a great deal. Great cities sprang up throughout the North and Northwest, bolstered by the improvement in transportation.

The necessity of a canal was fully demonstrated in 1899 during the Spanish American war. During the war, the battleship U.S.S. Oregon, which was stationed in California, was ordered to assist in the blockade of Cuba. To get there, the battleship had to go around the entire southern tip of South America. The trip took ten weeks and almost caused the ship to miss the war. Because of this, public support for a canal arose, and members of congress began to push for the acquisition of a canal in order to obtain a faster sea route from one coast to the other (“The United States Acquires the Canal

The Erie canal helped shape America. The Northwest was expanding and needed to get their products to the east coast. However, they seemed to be lacking a water source. Since the Erie canal was connected from the Hudson river to the Great lakes this made it possible for farmers to transport goods to the east coast without a problem. The Erie canal paved the pathway to a more stable America and an economic growth by allowing transportation, trade, exporting and importing goods to be more accessible through the United States. “This great work will immortalize the present authorities of N.Y. will bless their descendants with wealth and prosperity, and prove to mankind the superiority wisdom of employing the resources of industry in works of improvement rather than destruction.” The canal combined trade and transportation allowing for commerce to help speed up the Industrialization in the United States after the Erie canal was

This made it very hard for the individual states to come up with the money. Usually private investors took care of this issue (Roark, 260). Canals were another way for an increase in transportation. They would connect cities, such as the Erie Canal, which covered the area between Albany and Buffalo and connecting New York City to the area of the Great Lakes (Roark, 261). Railroads also came into the picture with the first railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio in 1829 (Roark, 262).

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

A River Runs Through It is, deservedly so, the work that Norman Maclean will always be best known for. His 1976 semi-autobiographical novella tells what is really only a brief piece of the life story of two brothers who grew up together in the Montana wilderness; but the scope of this timeless tale of fishing, family, and religion extends beyond just a few months. It touches on the entirety of the complicated relationship between Norman Maclean and his parents, and his prodigal yet distant and troubled brother Paul. In masterful and stirring prose, Maclean examines the strength of their bond, and yet how neither he nor his family could keep Paul from self-destruction. Maclean also mulls over his and his family’s ideas about grace and man’s relation to nature. Maclean’s enthralling vision is delivered through the artistry of his writing, earning the book its deserved position as a classic of American literature. In 1992, a film adaptation of the novel was released,

Love Canal is one of the most iconic and appalling environmental tragedies in American history. Dreamed up by a visionary, William T. Love built Love Canal to create a dream community on the fringe of Niagara Falls where all could see it as a dream community. Love built the Canal because he thought that by digging a short canal between two rivers that he could generate electricity to power homes and business in the community surrounding the canal. With the invention of AC power and a depression, the canals power systems were never installed and it remained as a dry canal for quite some time. It’s ironic that it had such grand intentions considering the Love Canal would become one of Americas most polluted superfund sites in American history.