Ohios Grand Canal

This is a one-volume history of the Ohio and Erie Canal. It chronicles the events leading up to construction, as well as public opinion of the canal system, the modification made to traditional boat designs, and much more.

The people who lived and worked on and alongside the Ohio and Erie canal had a vocabulary of their own. This text lists the terms they used to describe the boats, crews and canals - these have been taken from the official reports of the Ohio Canal Commissioners and the Board of Public Works.

This book is a profusely illustrated interpretation of life along Ohio's 19th-century canal system: the Miami & Erie Canal with its multiple feeders in central and eastern Ohio. Gieck recounts the efforts of people involved in the planning and building of the canal system and draws an admiring yet candid picture of the canalers who made their livelihood upon the canal waters. Designed in an oversized format, this beautiful volume will be welcomed by historians and engineers as well as by all those who find in the surviving canals a fascinating symbol of Ohio's heritage.

A fascinating history of the Ohio and Erie Canal, from a national leader in agricultural output to a recreational resource. George Washington first proposed the idea of a canal connecting the Great Lakes to the Ohio-Mississippi River System in 1784. Inspired by the Erie Canal in New York, the State of Ohio began surveying routes in 1822 for its own grand internal improvement project. Completed a decade later, the 309-mile-long Ohio and Erie Canal connected Cleveland, Akron, Massillon, Dover, Roscoe, Newark, Columbus, Circleville, Chillicothe, Waverly, and Portsmouth. Success was immediate, as this vital transportation link provided access to Eastern markets. Within a span of 35 years, canals transformed Ohio from a rural frontier wilderness into the nation's leader in agricultural output and third most populous state by 1860. Railroads marked the end of the canal as an economic engine, but traffic continued to operate until the Great Flood of 1913 destroyed the system as a commercial enterprise. Today, the Ohio and Erie Canal is enjoying a rebirth as a recreational resource.

Travel through the history of Ohio's historic canals and follow its growth throughout the years told with hundreds of photographs. In the 1800s, the United States was a nation obsessed with finding a form of transportation that was the fastest, cheapest, and most reliable; at the time, canals were the answer. Canals broke through vast, open countryside, forested woodlands, and rolling hills to expose the heart of the nation to development. They took passengers and goods off of dusty or muddy roads and delivered them to their destinations faster and cheaper than by any other means. From Toledo to Cincinnati, the Miami and Erie Canal provided western Ohio with that sorely needed waterway and became part of the 1,000 miles of Ohio canals contributing to the national network of canals. Today, with the help of government, corporations, and citizens, many parts of the Ohio canal system have been preserved or restored and can be visited and experienced. Watered sections of canal quietly reflect a bygone era and lead an explorer down the towpaths of history.