26 G. S. CALLENDER 



construction of a canal to connect the Susquehanna river 

 with Pittsburg with a portage railroad over the mountains in 

 1825; Maryland, Virginia, and the federal government under- 

 took to build the Chesapeake & Ohio canal to connect the 

 Potomac and Ohio rivers in 1828; and a legislative com- 

 mittee recommended a canal to connect Boston with the 

 Hudson as early as 1826. With the advent of the railroad 

 a new crop of projects to reach the west arose. The Balti- 

 more & Ohio was the first, begun in 1828; a few years later 

 the Massachusetts project of a canal to the Hudson was 

 changed into the Western railroad from Worcester to Albany ; 

 New York planned the Erie railroad to connect New York 

 harbor with Lake Erie; Virginia proposed to reach the west 

 by a railroad from Lynchburg on the James river canal 

 southwest to the Tennessee river; Georgia was to reach the 

 west by extending her local railroads from Atlanta to Chat- 

 tanooga; while South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee 

 united to further the construction of the Louisville, Cincin- 

 nati & Charleston railway to connect the Ohio river with 

 the south Atlantic seaboard. Besides these larger works 

 there was a multitude of smaller ones in nearly all the eastern 

 states. Not to mention turnpike roads, there were the 

 Blackstone and Farmington canals in New England, the 

 former to connect Providence with Worcester, and the latter 

 New Haven with the Connecticut valley. New York and 

 Pennsylvania planned a network of lateral canals connect- 

 ing their main works with all parts of these states. The 

 development of the anthracite coal industry began immedi- 

 ately after 1815, and led to a series of canal projects in New 

 York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The Schuylkill navi- 

 gation was the first, beginning in 1815, and followed about 

 1825 by the Lehigh Navigation and the Delaware & Hudson, 

 and Morris canals. The Raritan canal was also projected a 

 little later, to connect New York and Philadelphia. A great 

 number of small canals and river improvements were under- 

 taken in Maryland, Virginia, and the states south of them. 

 The Delaware & Chesapeake and Dismal Swamp canals were 

 the largest of these. The local railway projects were numerous 



