Canals and Railroads

Canals and Railroads. Hudson River Pk. , It was the completion of the Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo in 1825 that solidified New York City's position as America's premier Atlantic seaport, creating the twentieth-century demand for modern facilities such as Pier 76. The canal provided the first reliable transportation route to the nation's Midwest and the impetus for the city's nineteenth-century development into a thriving commercial center. Blessed with a natural deep-water port and an aggressive mercantile spirit, the city grew in population by nearly 80,000 between 1820 and 1830, while its share of the nation's foreign trade increased from nine percent in 1800 to thirty-seven percent in 1830., During the mid-nineteenth century, railroad transportation succeeded canals as the nation's economic catalyst, and no figure served a more central role in their success then Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt. In 1867, Vanderbilt acquired control of the New York Central Railroad, which he then merged with the Hudson River Railroad and other lines he controlled. The viability of commercial and passenger railroad transportation remained strong until after World War II, when it became increasingly challenged by automobiles, airlines, and the St. Lawrence Seaway, which allowed for direct water communication between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean., [Captions:] , Governor DeWitt Clinton, whose early support of the Erie Canal was derided by many, symbolically pouring the waters of Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean at New York City in November 1825., Late-nineteenth century view showing canal boats tied up at Coenties Slip, located on the East River in southern Manhattan between Pearl and South Streets, mentioned in the opening pages of Herman Melville's Moby Dick., Map depicting Cornelius Vanderbilt's New York Central and Hudson River Railroad system in 1876 and illustrating its importance in connecting the New York metropolitan area with western New York and the Midwest., Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, a native of Staten Island and a premier figure in American transportation in the middle of the decades of the nineteenth century. Vanderbilt consolidated numerous railroad lines that connected New York City with the Midwest and southern Ontario.