152 .1. L. Bishop — The State Works of Pennsylvania. 



men on tbe Atlantic seaboard, particularly in jNTew York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Maryland and Virginia. The peculiar topography of the 

 country afforded but one natural outlet to tidewater, viz. — by 

 the long route of the Ohio and the Mississippi to the Gulf.* The 

 Allegheny mountains, separating the East from the West, were 

 regarded as a formidable barrier to trade and communication. 

 How to link those two sections of the country by an adequate 

 transportation system was the problem. 



In the early history of the colonies, before the movement west- 

 ward had become of any importance, and when most of the popu- 

 lation was confined to the coast and the immediate interior, the 

 improvements in transportation were inextensive and of a local 

 character. Roads had to be constructed through the forests, 

 marshes made passable by causeways, and rude bridges thrown 

 across the smaller streams. Later, appropriations were made to 

 improve the navigation of the rivers. For a long time the only 

 communications to the small western settlements were Indian trails 

 along which no bulky goods could be carried. These in due course 

 gave way to roads which for a time were considered adequate for 

 trade and travel. But even before the West had come into prom- 

 inence sufficient to present new problems in the field of trans- 

 portation, the adaptability of canals to the needs of commerce, 

 and their superiority over other known means of transportation, 

 had been satisfactorily demonstrated. In the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century, a few of the far-seeing men in Virginia, Mary- 

 land, Pennsylvania and JSTew York conceived the idea of using 

 them to supplement the natural water courses in reaching the Ohio 

 valley and Lake Erie.f When the growth of the West had attracted 

 public attention the rivalry of the adjacent eastern states for its 

 trade was keen. Every one of the Atlantic seaboard cities had an 



* The St. Lawrence route should not be overlooked, but less attention was 

 given to it than to the one mentioned above. 



■}■ As early as 1754 George Washington in person explored a route to con- 

 nect the east and west by the waters of the Potomac and Yonghiojieny rivers. 

 He also made a report to the colonial legislature of Virginia describing the 

 obstacles to be overcome from Cumberland at the mouth of Wills' Creek to 

 Georgetown. On the 20th of July, 1770, he made another report to the 

 Governor of Maryland upon another route to the west at Pittsburg, and 

 spoke of its importance, to use his own words, as "the channel of conveyance 

 of the extensive and ^•aluable trade of a rising empire." Later, he wrote of 

 the political importance of opening a communication to the West, in that it 



