COMMERCIAL RELATIONS: THE GREAT LAKES 151 



easy to dig a canal, now called the Illinois and Michigan 

 Canal, along the same line, for the divide between the two 

 rivers is at one place not more than 15 feet higher than the 

 lake. The canal begins only a few miles from the old French 

 and Indian portage and extends along the valley of the Des 

 Plaines and Illinois rivers to La Salle, Illinois, where it enters 

 the Illinois River. Thus the route used by the Indians for 

 many centuries became the route of modern commerce, and 

 the small town at the mouth of the river, where the ships met 

 the canal boats, grew and flourished. 



167. The railroads. Soon railroads were built, and then the 

 canal became less important, but two of the railroads were 

 built along the same old route of the early Indian travel. In 

 the valley of the Des Plaines River leading southwest there 

 are the river and the old canal, two railroads, a wagon road, 

 a trolley line, and the sanitary canal. 



The railroads could not afford to miss the city at the end 

 of the lake, for here was the only harbor in this vicinity where 

 freight might be transferred between train and ship. Further- 

 more, the lake extends so far south that railways built west- 

 ward from the larger cities of the east toward the rich prairies 

 of the west found their shortest route close to the end of the 

 lake, and were built into the city. Thus the settlement that 

 was on the main line of pioneer travel came to be on the 

 main line of railway travel and the principal meeting place of 

 commerce by land with that by water. 



Elsewhere upon the shores of lakes, rivers, and ocean the 

 towns which were originally centers of commerce by water 

 have become railway centers also. The importance of river 

 commerce has decreased greatly since railways have become 

 more numerous. In many cases the railways have followed 

 the routes which were earlier used by water-borne commerce. 

 Thus the New York Central Railway parallels the Hudson 

 River, Erie Canal, and Lake Erie, and two railways follow 

 the route of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. 



