Explore the history of America’s deep waterways with this comprehensive catalog of official reports, plans, and periodical essays.
This collection gathers long-running studies and proposals that explored connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic and other major river routes, through canals, ship canals, and improvements to inland navigation.
- Includes government documents, executive reports, and committee papers from the 1820s to the early 1900s.
- Covers routes such as Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, Niagara Falls ship canal, and potential links from lakes to the sea.
- Also assembles articles from periodicals and analyses on the economic and engineering aspects of inland water transportation.
- Provides historical context for ongoing debates about national waterway policy and infrastructure.
Ideal for researchers and readers of transportation history, engineering debates, and policy development related to U.S. deep waterways.