The year was 1848. The hand-dug Illinois & Michigan Canal, the final link in the nation’s water highway system of the 19th century, had just opened. For the first time, people and goods could travel by inland waterway between the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.
At one end of the canal: Chicago and Lake Michigan. Nearly a hundred miles west: LaSalle and the Illinois River. In LaSalle, passengers hustled to make connections to canal boats headed to Chicago or steamboats bound for St. Louis and beyond.
Molasses, sugar, coffee, fresh oranges and lemons could now head north from New Orleans. Lumber, stoves, wagons and the latest clothing styles could head south.
Chicago, a swampy outpost, would soon become a booming metropolis – thanks to the canal.
