120 A HISTORY OF AMERICA IN 100 MAPS
In 1807 Congress asked the Treasury secretary, Albert
Gallatin, to survey the country’s entire transportation
network in order to set priorities for improvements.
Gallatin’s lengthy and comprehensive response
has been called the greatest planning document in
American history. He emphasized the importance
of infrastructure to integrate the seaboard and the
interior. A road across the Appalachian range, for
instance, would draw the west closer to eastern
settlements, while a network of canals would
facilitate trade between seaports and the Great Lakes.
Finally, Gallatin proposed a series of canals to create
an inland navigation network from Massachusetts to
southern Georgia. This was an outlandishly expensive
project for the young nation, but the War of 1812
forcefully demonstrated the need for an internal
system of transportation. This was all the more
important given the sheer size of a country
that extended from the Mississippi River to the
Atlantic Ocean.
One of Gallatin’s specific suggestions was
the construction of a canal from Lake Ontario
to the Hudson River. New Yorkers responded
with enthusiasm, and when little federal support
materialized they took matters into their own hands.
The state formed a canal commission and appointed
former New York City mayor DeWitt Clinton as its
leader. In 1816 the commission proposed a 350-mile
east–west route from the Hudson River to Lake Erie,
which former President Jefferson called “a little
short of madness.” With signatures of support from
100,000 New Yorkers, however, construction of the
canal began on Independence Day in 1817.
The Erie Canal used over fifty locks to traverse
600 feet of elevation, and was far longer than any
canal in Europe at that time. The project reconfigured
American geography by connecting the western
interior to the coast. The old Northwest and the Great
Lakes region were both brought into the orbit of
New York City, enlarging its economic prospects at
the expense of Boston. The canal reduced the cost of
shipping by over 90 percent, and within a few years
A LITTLE SHORT OF MADNESS
Cadwallader D. Colden, “New York,”
1825