Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/488

484 therefore, did not wait for proof positive of the advantages of improved waterways. The evidence was forthcoming had it been necessary, for at once after the Erie canal had wedded the lake and the ocean northern Ohio felt a new throb of commercial life. Lake trade was stimulated, harbors were improved, wharves and warehouses constructed; and prices advanced on all commodities that could be conveniently reached. The Ohio legislature had taken the initiative without these evidences. In seven years the Ohio canal, connecting Portsmouth on the river at the mouth of the Scioto with Cleveland on the lake, 306 miles long, was completed. The Miami canal joining Cincinnati and Toledo was commenced in the same year, reached Dayton in 1830, but was not completed to the lake till 1845. Along either canal route trade activity shortly developed the sleepy villages into thrifty towns and cities. Later adjustments have left some of these places only a retrospect; the canal period was their heyday. Others, however, as Newark, Coshocton, Massillon, Akron, Hamilton, Troy and Defiance, have continued to prosper under the conditions incident to the transfer of shipping from the canals to railroads.

The Ohio canal, the course of which was controlled by other considerations than merely joining the river and the lake, makes an ascent of almost 500 feet. Its construction, relative to its length, was much more expensive than the Erie canal which ascends only 445 feet. The maintenance of the Ohio canal also involved greater expense. For this reason, with the extension of railroad lines in the state, we find that by 1856 the canals of Ohio ceased to earn running expenses. During about twenty years, however, these canals were of great commercial importance to the contiguous parts of the state. Even upon the opening of the canal from Dresden to Cleveland the price of wheat advanced from $.25 to $1.00 per bushel.

When we speak of railroads to-day we at once think of one or another of the great through lines. In the early days of railroad construction no one dreamed of even a trans-state road. Until recent years a through line always meant the consolidation of short independently owned segments. Local interest in railroad building in Ohio was lively from the start. Thrifty commercial relations emphasized the inadequacy of boating facilities. The efficiency of the Lake Erie and Erie canal route was not questioned, but there were few canals in Ohio to give access to the lake. The first steam road to operate in the state (1836) had one terminus on the lake at Toledo, the other being at Adrian, Mich. Sandusky had no canal, but by 1839 it